The Weaver of Dreams
by Queen
Summary: When Usagi lapses into a strange coma, she becomes trapped in an endless nightmare. Determined to help, two of the senshi are forced to travel though a Doorway, in search of the only person who can help her.... (complete)2nd in the KamiDreamweaver series
1. Prologue

Hello, and welcome back...sorta. 

Just so you know, _'The Weaver of Dreams'_ is a continuation to another fic I wrote called _'The Bloom of the Mountain Cherry'_. I've tried to write _"Weaver of Dreams" _so that you can read this, without having read _"Bloom"_. Things are explained, but it really would be better if you read _"Bloom"_ first... It introduces a character named 'Kami' and this takes _"Bloom"_ a bit further. I've tried to stay true to the 'tone' of _"Bloom"_ but "_Weaver of Dreams_" is a bit more on the adventurous side. You will probably be able to tell that after reading the prologue. (It's still a drama, but there's a little action in this one.) There are four chapters, as well as prologue and epilogue. 

That said, Sailormoon does not belong to me. It would be cool, but it doesn't. It belongs to Naoko-hime, who has spawned all this fanfiction....so, read on, and see what you think. 

-Queen

fic complete: 3/14/01

The Weaver of Dreams

Prologue-

The world of the dream was a strange one, and the sensation of floating through space and time, one of tranquility. The dreaming girls' thoughts were at peace, and the world she walked through one of starlit skies, scented in lavender. If she turned her head quickly enough, she could see the faint silhouette of a man beside her, and if she closed her eyes, feel his hand in hers. Even though she dreamed, she felt herself blush, both in happiness and uncertainty. And as it was in the world of dreams, the valley they walked though became unnatural, the grasses fading into tiled hallways. But then, her companion vanished, and the girl felt concern, which swiftly became fear. The stars became black, and the quiet sounds of the wind on the grass became silence. The rolling hills warped and twisted, curling into glinting sapphire mirrors, which circled her from all sides, showing her reflections of herself, some young, some old, some sad, some happy. But in one mirror, the one she hesitated to face, a different reflection shone. Instead of the short azure hair she was accustomed to, it was long and blonde, bound up in two buns, the length of her hair trailing to the floor, yet not quite brushing it. 

The dreamer touched the hair with confusion, then the school uniform she wore, the intricate brooch on the bow. The reflection imitated her, until it smiled suddenly, ceasing to copy her actions. Instead, the mirror stretched outward, as the shadow within pressed a hand against it, pushing her way forward with a smile. 

"Usagi-chan?" 

The reflection continued to smile, approaching her friend, who backed away, but not quickly enough. A hand reached out, wrapping itself around the dreamer's neck, and though she tried, the girl who dreamed could not break free of the hold, as air faded from her world. 

It was with a grateful gasp that Ami awoke, clutching her covers to her chin, struggling to breathe in the air that was present in her room. She pressed a hand to her neck. There were no fingermarks. No prints to show that her throat had recently been crushed. She blinked once, the leapt from the bed, running through the darkly shadowed apartment. Her arm shot out, fingers encompassing the phone, even as it began to ring. Startled, she fumbled with it, finally hitting the 'on' button. "Usagi-chan?"

There was a pause, then another voice. "Ami-chan?"

"Rei...Rei-chan?"

"You saw it too?"

"Hai." 

There really was no need to say what 'it' was. They each reacted in equal ways, Ami thinking the phone was Usagi, Rei already calling the senshi. Rei continued, "I just tried Usagi-chan's house...the line was busy...."

"Mamoru?"

"I think so."

"Have you tried-"

"No, next."

"I'm on my way."

"Un. Five minutes."

There was a sharp click as Ami heard Rei set her phone down, next to her bed. Ami cast a glance around the room, eyes sneaking to her mother's open door. Dr. Mizuno was back on the late shift this week, having had her day shift the week preceding. Into the cloaking darkness, she lifted her hand. 

"Mercury Crystal Power! Make-up!" 

The cool, yet somehow warm feeling of water coursed both around and through her, familiar yet startling as it was each time. When her feet hit the floor again, she took a deep breath, cleansing her lungs. Then she headed out of the apartment. Their Princess needed her soldiers.


	2. A Thread of Nightmare

The Weaver of Dreams

"For the mind in sleep is clear in its eyesight, though in the daytime the fate of mortals is hidden from their ken...."

-Aeschylus, _Eurmenides_

Chapter 1- A Thread of Nightmare

As it was in very rare times, Ami found herself cursing tests. They take too long, they distract, they occupy thoughts that need to be elsewhere. Especially when there was only five minutes before the bell, and she knew a ride was waiting for her. She bit the tip of her eraser, trying to focus on the task, but couldn't help but let her eyes flick to where Makoto's ponytail was bobbing up and down, two rows before her. Test. Clock. Test again. Clock again. Ami uncrossed then crossed her legs, fidgeting. 

Bell. 

Within the instant of the sound, two papers were smacked down onto the sensei's podium, Mako's, then Ami's, and each were flying out the door on winged feet, blue skirts flying as they hurried. Another figure was hurtling down the hallway from the opposite direction, red bow in blond hair, which was streaming out behind her as she ran. They met up in the middle of the hall, and greetings were silent as they looked between themselves. 

"Ready?" Minako asked.

"Hai," was the agreement from the other two. They made for the door, breaking out into the sunshine. The Guardian of Time and the Soldier of Fire were standing by a car, Setsuna's, since she had come to pick them up. Rei turned first, Setsuna halting mid-sentence. There were hurried hellos, as Setsuna slipped into the driver's seat, Rei sliding into shotgun, the final three packing into the back, clutching books andbags. 

The car ride began.

Mercury had been the first to arrive, as Rei had continued to call the others. Reaching Usagi's house in Juuban had not been difficult, for so late at night, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, and no one was about. Hesitating with a breath, she saw Haruka's car crookedly parked across the street. As Mercury watched, Hotaru ran from the house, looking around frantically. Seeing the Soldier of the Silence not in uniform, Mercury let the waters ripple around her again, replacing her in her nightgown. No one paid attention to her clothing. No one cared. By the time she was to the front door, Mars had arrived, Venus and Jupiter not even a second after, accompanied by the scream of sirens. 

There were many senshi in the house, and Mamoru. While Haruka raced her overflowing car, they pieced together what had happened, much mumbled by a strained Chibiusa, her pink hair in disarray, clutching Diana tightly. She remembered waking up, hearing Usagi moving, going for the phone. When her mother had collapsed to the floor, she had leapt up, disrupting Luna and Diana, who were curled at the foot of the bed. 

Tuxedo Kamen had quite literally broken into the house, using a rose to break the lock on the front door, detransforming as he pounded up the stairs to see his future daughter cradling the head of his future wife. The sounds of the intruder had alerted the rest of the family, who came running in. From there, the ambulance had been called, the senshi arriving within moments of each other. 

No one knew what to do. 

An alert Dr. Mizuno had nearly dropped her clipboard when she saw her own daughter, dressed in socks and a nightgown, along with her several similarly attired friends. Having a personal hand in the hospital, Dr. Mizuno set Usagi up with a private room, since it seemed that her vital signs were stable. In fact, it seemed there was no illness at all. Which was very strange, considering the swiftness with which she slipped into a coma. 

The senshi walked through the hallways of the hospital, hearing the intercom calling for various doctors. It smelled like a hospital, the sting of medicinal cleanser and bleached tile floors. Very white, with occasional plants in an attempt to look cheery. Up two floors, to the west wing, down past the sights of tubes and beeping machines. Nurses in scrubs walked past, some smiling gently at the girls. 

It was room 231 that Usagi had been assigned, marked by the fact that Haruka was leaning up against the door, Michiru sitting on a chair, and Hotaru hovering between them. 

Rei asked, "How is she?" Noticing the crack the door was open, Rei tried to peer through, attempting to get a glimpse of within.

Haruka responded, "No change. I got that much out of a nurse. Mamoru, Chibiusa, and the family are in there...we didn't want to barge in."

They shuffled their feet a bit, agreeing with Haruka's decision to let the family be. So they hovered, waiting. Minako wandered a bit down the hallway, looking out the window. Makoto began to observe a plant idly. Rei paced. 

Then there was a stir inside. 

Everyone mustered back at the doorway as Ikuko and Kenji emerged, Shingo with them, just behind. The harsh fluorescent lights made Ikuko's face look paler than it was, and Kenji was gripping her hand tightly. They noticed their daughter's friends, and Kenji smiled politely. "We're going home for awhile. Get some rest. You'll stay with her, too?"

The answer to the question was obvious, when everyone began to jostle forward. 

As Usagi's parents made their way down the hall, Rei grabbed Shingo sharply, nearly spinning him around. "Where do you think you're going? What's going on?"

Shingo gave Rei a dirty look for grabbing him and shrugged her arm off. He glanced after his parents, then sighed with a frown. "They've been running tests. Bloodwork, and she had a MRI this morning. The doctors don't know what's wrong with her. She just won't wake up. The results keep coming back normal." Shingo looked between the gathered girls. "Look, I'm glad you're all here for Usagi. Makes Mom feel better. You call us if anything changes, got it?"

There were nods. 

"I've gotta catch up with Mom and Dad. Chibiusa and Mamoru are still in there."

With that, Shingo hurried off, since his parents were already out of sight. 

The curtains were open, letting light into the room, which fell in a square onto Usagi's bed. She lay there, very still, especially for Usagi, with her eyes closed, black lashes brushing her cheeks. The sheet was pulled up to her chest, and her long hair was out of the trademark style, spilling over the pillow and over her shoulders. Mamoru sat on a stool at her bedside, one of her cold hands in his, the fringes of his black hair falling into his reddened eyes. Chibiusa was sitting on a small couch in the room, legs tucked up under her. It was strange to see her, since the family had gathered things so quickly to follow the ambulance. Her hair was out of the carrot odango, instead in a ponytail at the base of her neck. 

With the appearance of the senshi, and the leaving of the family, the cats emerged from under the couch, warily looking at the door, which Setsuna closed as she was the last one to enter. Each of them took up a different location in the room. Minako and Ami near the window, casting silhouettes of themselves in the square of light. Makoto under the suspended television. Rei opposite Mamoru, Haruka behind, an arm over Michiru's shoulders. Setsuna sat down beside Chibiusa, who was pulled into a hug. Hotaru wedged herself beside Setsuna, sitting on the couch's arm. There was a little silence, which was broken when Mamoru said, "Rei, you still don't sense anything?"

They were somewhat startled that Mamoru spoke first, though maybe that was what made most sense. His voice was rough, and he looked tired as he watched his girlfriend, who lay there so pale. 

Rei hesitated, closing her eyes. She cast her senses outward, reaching as far as she could, attempting to find some enemy to fight, some dark force that was striking down their Princess and friend. After a moment, her eyes opened once more, and in a defeated tone said, "No."

Mamoru turned his head to look at her, and he nodded a little. "Arigatou, for trying."

Rei bit her lip, backing away a little. 

"Should I try again?" Hotaru asked, referring to her healing abilities. Mamoru turned Usagi's hand in his, looking at the long fingers and white skin, coming to neat little nails.

"Nothing has changed from last night. I don't think it will make a difference." 

The senshi cast glances between each other. Mamoru nearly sounded defeated, and that was not encouraging. "Well," Minako piped up hopefully, looking at Chibiusa. "We know it'll all work out. Chibiusa's still here, right?" 

Eyes turned to the sleepy girl, then to the older woman who held her. "Everything _will_ be all right, won't it Setsuna?" Makoto asked, nearly glaring at the Guardian of Time. Setsuna did not look up from the top of Chibiusa's head, her eyes low. "Damn it, Setsuna," Makoto began, "this is different! If there's no enemy to fight, then how do we know...."

"Mako-chan," Ami consoled, coming over to put a hand on Makoto's arm. "it's all right...."

"It's not all right! I'm sick of this 'we can't know' shit! If we can't help her, then-"

Into this, Setsuna said softly, "Did it ever occur to you that maybe I don't know myself?"

"What is that supposed to mean? You're the Guardian-"

"Both of you!" Michiru snapped, leaving the safety of Haruka's arm. "Fighting amongst ourselves is not going to help her at all. Sick or not, we can't start fighting. You know Usagi wouldn't let us do that."

Makoto frowned, but silenced herself. 

"Then Puu," Chibiusa asked, slipping out of Setsuna's arms, "what do we do?"

"We wait. For an option to present itself."

The mirrors were dark where they had once been light. The silver scrolling around their borders glinted, but now the light that struck them struck darkly, menacing rather than welcoming. It was a place of nightmares, with the black mist that curled with familiar ease around the bare feet of the young girl. Everywhere she turned to look, mirrors circled her, her rich blue eyes taking in the surroundings with a fear filled wonder. There were no stars, there was no moon. Only the mirrors that reflected. 

Into this, the girl who was Sailor Moon turned, her hair unbound, trailing straight down, past her knees, yet not quite touching her ankles. A long, white nightdress floated around her, and she hugged herself for warmth, even though it was not cold. She had tried calling for her Mamo-chan. For her senshi. She even tried to henshin, lifting her hand to the empty air, yet her words only echoed in the caverns of the shadows. Lonely and alone, Usagi walked in circles, her image passing though the empty mirrors.

"Don't get scared," she murmured to herself. "Mirrors can't hurt you. Nephrenia is dead, remember? Starlight....killed her. Don't be scared...." The words were to cheer herself, but the chant wasn't soothing. 

"You're ever so right, not to be scared."

Usagi spun, her heart quickening a moment, first in fear, then in relief that she wasn't alone. Searching, no one stepped out of the darkness to identify themselves. 

"Who's there?" 

The words echoed.

"Oh, such a shame you don't remember me. Of course, your last thoughts weren't of me, exactly, even though I was standing right there."

Usagi found the source of her strange conversation, reflected in a tall mirror. A girl slightly older than herself stood there, leaning up against the glass from the other side. She wore a dress, black, with an off-white apron across the skirt, her wavy black hair falling to her waist. She turned and smiled, placing her hands on the opposite side of the glass. 

"Who...?"

"Am I?" The smile broadened. "I suppose I do look so different in my original body. Odd though. Hm. Well, maybe you'll recognize me this way better," the girl said, stepping away from the mirror, her dress floating up around her as she turned on her toes, the cloth lengthening and growing darker, her eyes brightening to pricks of light as a hood enveloped her face. 

Staggering backward, this form she recognized instantly. "Wiseman!"

There was the sound of sandpapery laughter. "Wiseman? Yes, but maybe also...." The laughter grew high pitched, more of a cackle than a laugh, as the black robes became a gown, high collared, black hair returning, but now spilling down past her feet in tight waves, cat slit eyes flickering dangerously down from the height of the dream mirror. 

"Neph...Nephrenia...."

Confused, and now very afraid, Usagi instinctively reached for the familiar weight of the Silver Crystal, her hands only clasping the cotton of the gown. Eyes filling with horror at her helplessness, Usagi continued to back away from the mirror, backing up into yet another reflection.

Nephrenia placed a hand against the inside of the glass, pushing forward, the mirror stretching like elastic at her touch. Slowly, her fingers pushed through the border, accompanied by a piercing white light. "But in the end, Rabbit of the Moon...." Her arms pushed though, long, white sleeves forming as they passed through the light. Her body escaped the mirror's trapping, the gown taking a simpler, more familiar form. Black shoes. A knee-length blue skirt. A dark red bow on the front, a pretty, heart shaped brooch pinning it together. And as Nephrenia's face emerged though the light, it also changed, becoming younger, prettier, with wide blue eyes and long blonde hair, bound up twice, on either side of her head, in a style Usagi was very familiar with. 

"In the end, Rabbit of the Moon...."

The white nightgown pooled around Usagi as she sunk to the floor, edging closer to the mirror at her back. The new figure approached, towering over her with a smile. 

"In the end, I...."

The girl pointed a finger at herself, then at Usagi.

"...am you."

The door opened, and two figures were sketched in from the light beyond. 

"Ami-chan?" Came a familiar voice. 

"Mom?" Ami turned and came over to the doorway, where Dr. Mizuno and a middle aged, slightly grayed man stood. "Are you here for Usagi-chan?"

Dr. Mizuno nodded, placing her hands in her white lab coat, and taking in the number of people in the room. "Dr. Yurei and I are going to try a new battery of blood tests. We hope something new may turn up." She kept looking around the room, and her placid face frowned a little. "I'm afraid, Ami-chan, you and your friends will have to leave...."

That instantly brought a barrage of protest from the senshi. The cats took this opportunity to leap under the couch, peering up from under its edge, unseen. 

Dr. Mizuno was nearly overwhelmed by the faces that had popped up into her view, desperately trying to back away from the Inner senshi. Dr. Yurei pushed into the fray, smiling and doing his best to placate the girls. "All right, two of you may stay, but Dr. Mizuno and myself need the space and quiet."

"I'll stay!" Rei snapped, in unison with Makoto.

"Hold it!" Minako shouted into the oncoming argument. "If two of us get to stay, it's Mamoru and Chibiusa, not us! They _are_ her husband and dau-"

Minako suddenly had Michiru's hand over her mouth, while Haruka leapt in for the rescue, when the two doctors stared at the Soldier of Love. "Hey, you know how Mamoru and Usagi will get married!" She pushed her way though the swarming Inners, thwacking Dr. Yurei on the back, making it a joke. "Hey, where's the cafeteria? We could use some coffee! Right, Michie?"

Minako had finally managed to pull Michiru's hand off her mouth, and began to glare at the aqua haired woman, who was shaking her head in despair. "I don't know about Michiru," Minako huffed, flipping her hair over her shoulder, "but I could use some. Come on, minna!" Minako gathered her dignity and marched out of the room. Ami reluctantly followed her, hoping that if she went, the others would begin to follow. And Minako did have a good point. If any of them had the right to stay, it was Mamoru and Chibiusa. 

It was a big troop that wandered around the hospital, finding its way downstairs, at last stumbling onto the newly washed floors of the cafeteria. It had been decorated in accordance with the rest of the hospital, white, with sea foam green tiles bordering the floor, some plants to decorate it and make it seem less sterile. Hotaru found a quiet area to the back of the place, a wide window revealing the sidewalk and parking lot outside, cars lined up prettily in neat rows. 

Setsuna and Haruka, along with Makoto, took orders for food and drink, and came back a minute later, laden with trays of coffee, sugar, cream, chips and a Pepsi for Hotaru. They settled into the long table, passing the drinks and chips around in a circle. The crackling of bags opening was heard, and the smell of coffee floated upward around them. 

"So," Haruka began, "now what?"

"We wait for the tests, and hope that they show something," Rei said, not liking it. "I can't feel any presence of evil...she must really be sick...."

"But there is no evidence of it," Ami commented, shaking her head. "Unless these new tests do...but honestly, I don't think they will...."

"Ami-chan!" Rei exclaimed, staring at her from across the table. "Don't give up already on Usagi! She's fought so many things...she won't give up on some stupid virus or whatever!"

Makoto lifted an eyebrow. "That's interesting to hear, coming from you, Rei-chan."

"Yeah, well," Rei folded her arms, settling into her seat, glaring around, "I just wish...well," she shifted around, staring at the table. "I just wish we knew what it was. Then we could fight it with her. For her, if we need to."

There were murmurs of agreement around their circle of eight, an empty seat down on one end of the table. 

"Either way," Minako decided, "we'll keep our eyes and ears open. If there is some new enemy, then they'll attack. And we'll know what to fight."

"Hotaru-chan?" Makoto asked the young girl next to her. Dark purple eyes looked up as she set the can down. "Did you sense anything when you tried to heal her last night?"

Hotaru fidgeted, wringing her hands in her lap, the straight cut of her hair slanting downward as she tried to sift though her memories. "Something...dark. But not evil. But still evil. I don't...I don't know. If it's a youma, then it's hiding very well. All I felt was the Princess. There was nothing to fight." 

There was a moment of silence, and then, very softly, a light voice was heard to say, "The most dangerous demons are the ones we create for ourselves...."

"Nani? Nan ja?" Several voices asked immediately, startled, but hearing the same words. They searched for the source of the words, and the only one who did not look up was the one who spoke, the Senshi of Water, who sat on the other side of the Senshi of Silence. 

Ami's wide, indigo eyes turned upward from her lap, and she placed her hands around the warm coffee cup. "A friend told me that once. Maybe...maybe Usagi is...well..." Ami trailed off. "Gomen ne, I sound so silly."

"Who?" Setsuna asked quietly. "And why do you think Usagi fights herself?"

Eyes shifted from Ami to Setsuna, and back again as she completed her question. 

"Herself?" Makoto asked, bewildered. "How can a person fight themself? Ami-chan?"

"It was just a thought...I'm sure I'm imagining things. Never mind it...."

"Like hell!" Makoto pounded a fist on the table. "Ami, if you have an idea-"

"Mako-chan!" Minako broke in, standing and leaning over the table, looking at her friend. "There are other people here," she ended in a low voice, eyes checking people several tables over, who were staring at them. Makoto saw this, and hunched down, lowering her voice as Minako returned to her seat, munching idly on a potato chip. 

"Gomen...but Ami-chan, right now, we'll take about anything. What is it?"

Ami looked at her friends and fellow soldiers, graced with the blessings of the planets. She was reluctant to tell them of how she had felt only a little more than three weeks ago. The depression that she was worthless, that she was powerless. She was stronger now, having faced it. Having come to understand it. But such things were deeply private, and she did not wish for even her closest friends to know. Not about the feeling of despair when your dream is torn away. Not of the sensation of water filling her lungs, and river rocks breaking her bones in the storm. She shuddered at the memory of it. No, she couldn't tell them such things. But there was Usagi to think of. And Mako was right. 

"Not so long ago," Ami began carefully, "I wasn't feeling so well. You remember?" She looked at Minako, who nodded. She remembered coming to Ami's apartment with Usagi, when Ami had missed school. "I told you that my friend died...Kami? You remember?" 

Minako was continuing to nod, urging Ami to continue with her story. The other senshi were watching the blue haired one, and there was the sound of them moving slightly as they did so, breathing and sipping coffee and eating chips. Ami took a breath and continued. 

"Kami...well. Kami didn't just die. She...she drowned herself...."

There were murmurs of sadness among the group, and Hotaru put a hand on Ami's arm to comfort her. It seemed wrong that the youngest of them knew the pain of death better than any. 

"Kami had her dreams torn from her...it doesn't really fit Usagi-chan, but Kami told me that our greatest demons are ones we create for ourselves. She helped me when I was so down...kept showing me scenes of what made her happy, and it helped me to understand myself better.... Like I said, it's silly...it doesn't apply to Usagi-chan at all...."

"Ami-chan..." Setsuna began, garnet eyes intent on the younger girl. "How did this Kami person show you scenes of her life?"

Ami looked up at Setsuna, becoming uncomfortable in her gaze. "In my dreams. It was very strange...she would come, and act like we had known each other forever. But she knew the whole time...that it was just a dream."

"She created the world of the dream?" 

Startled at Setsuna's sudden sharpness, Ami met her eyes. The various girls were all watching this peculiar conversation between the two, Setsuna's intensity, and Ami's uncertainty. 

"Yes."

Setsuna's head bowed, and she looked deep into the depths of her coffee, her shoulders bent as she thought. 

"Sets?" Haruka asked, seeing her eyes considering beneath the strip of hair that fell over her shoulder. "What is it?"

"Nothing. An impossibility, as Ami said," Setsuna decided with a frown, then drank from her styrofoam cup, as though that was to be the end of the matter.

"Setsuna...." Makoto began warningly, beginning to stand from her seat. Michiru grabbed her skirt and pulled her down.

"Calm yourself, Jupiter."

At the sound of her senshi name, Makoto subsided, folding her arms. "I just don't see why we have to pry things out of her every time we need some information," Makoto managed, looking pleadingly at the others for help, finally settling on Minako. "Minako-chan, help me out here."

Minako looked around, running a finger in idle circles on the dark, fake wood table as she thought. "Makoto is right. Setsuna, even if it is impossible, I think we all want to hear it anyway."

There were nods, slowly, but one by one they agreed. They wanted the story.

Setsuna sighed heavily. "If this Kami person is dead, then there is likely nothing that can be done."

"Oh, for the love of _god_, Setsuna," Haruka groaned. "Out with it!"

"Very well," Setsuna agreed at last. "It is the past, and I do not see how it would harm the future." She settled herself, and the others got ready to hear whatever tale Setsuna was crafting in her head. "Once upon a time, in the Old Silver Millennium, the royalty of a planet were to have a child. This child was to have the power of death, for all things must eventually end."

Setsuna looked up to the ceiling, and Hotaru felt a strange feeling begin to form in her stomach. Not quite sickness, but as though thinking of something terribly sad. 

"But it was not to be. She would have been the oldest of us, my elder by some few months. In those times, the people of the Moon were still new to the system of Sol, and the worlds were still in the delicate terraforming processes. Those of us outside the asteroid belt had a more difficult time of it, our planets being unstable. Only Jupiter remained in close contact with the Moon and its Kingdom. The rest drifted, allied but far, our own worlds to worry us. So it was with the ice rings of Saturn. The child that the queen expected was stillborn. 

"It was known in those days, that Sleep and Death were as siblings, and they are remembered even today as brothers in legend. The eldest was to be Death, the younger, Sleep. When at last the queen produced a child, the realm of the dead was passed to her, and the power of the Silence Glaive. Before a new daughter was born, the Silver Millennium fell. The power Ami described, and the ability to slip between minds is very like what I have heard to be the power over dreams. It was how the lemures of the Dead Moon Circus invaded our thoughts, though darkly."

When Setsuna remained silent for a moment, they realized the story was complete. Hotaru looked at Setsuna from across the table. "I had a sister?"

Setsuna smiled sadly at her adopted daughter, pitying her. Having someone would have helped her so much though her life. "You would have, Hotaru-chan. You would have."

Hotaru lowered her head to think, not sure what this meant.

"Wait a minute," Minako said as she rubbed her forehead, trying to take this in. "If there was supposed to be a senshi of dreams...dreams, right?"

Setsuna shrugged. "That was the idea."

"Okay. Then if there was supposed to be a senshi of dreams, why wasn't she reincarnated with the rest of us?"

It was Hotaru who answered, her reason simple. "She wasn't alive when Queen Serenity sent our souls to the future. She was either already reincarnated, or was still in the afterworld."

There were blinks from around the table. 

"Then we get her!" Rei exclaimed suddenly. "We get Kami! If she can get into people's dreams...their minds...all of it...then she can wake Usagi up, or help her fight off whatever it is that's got her in that coma!"

The only ones who did not jump up in excitement were Ami, Hotaru and Setsuna, who seemed to actually understand the situation. 

"Minna," Ami began, only to be drowned out by the chatter of the senshi. "Minna?" 

More talking. 

Ami glanced at Setsuna and Hotaru, who shrugged, shaking their heads, leaving it up to her. Ami sighed, placed her fingers in her mouth and whistled long and sharp. The others were so surprised at the loud sound coming from the usually quiet girl, they blinked in surprise, then settled in to listen. "Other people, remember?" Ami gestured at the rest of the cafeteria. A few more people had begun to wander in, since it was approaching dinnertime. "Quiet, ne?"

Quick nods. 

"Minna," Ami began as she settled herself into her chair, "Kami is dead. She has been for nearly nine hundred years. Dead, remember? She can't help us."

"You can't contact her somehow?" Michiru asked, leaning over the table, her hair waving down like a curtain behind her. She folded her arms over her uniform as she shook her head. "There has to be some way."

"Kami came to me, not me to her. I don't know how. We don't even know if she really is a senshi. We can't jump to conclusions."

"But if there's a chance...." Rei argued, placing her fists on the table. "If there's a chance, we have to try it. We'd be failing if we didn't even try."

"So you're talking about what?" Makoto asked, polishing off her coffee with a gulp. She picked a fuzzy off her uniform. "Going to the underworld?"

Dead silence.

Makoto began to absorb the consequences of her words, and paled. They had died before, but to actually make a trip deliberately? They weren't Sailor Moon. They didn't have the Imperium Crystal. They had no way to revive themselves if something went wrong. None of them ever had kept their memories of the afterworld. Who knew what existed there?

"I'll go," a little voice said into the silence. Eyes turned to Hotaru, who met their gazes. She straightened herself in her chair, placing her arms on the table and looking defiant. "I am the Soldier of Death and Destruction. And she may have been my sister. It is my realm. If any of us can survive it, then let me try."

"You most certainly will not!" Michiru responded instantly, every motherly sense she had towards Hotaru rebelling against such an action. "That is completely out of the question!"

"Michiru-mama...."

"No! Like Setsuna and Ami said, there isn't even a way to reach her."

It was Ami who thought of an idea just then, and she offered it. "Unless one of Pluto's timekeys can open a portal into the underworld."

More silence. 

"Setsuna? Will it?" 

Setsuna crushed the empty styrofoam cup in her hands, a bitter look on her features. 

"Then I'm going too," Ami announced, Setsuna's thoughts on the idea clear. "I've seen Kami. She will know me. She will," Ami repeated firmly, to chase away the doubts of the others, and the doubts of herself. 

"Ami, you can't be serious-" Rei began, but was cut off when Ami locked gazes with the opposing element.

"Rei-chan, I hope you're not suggesting that I'm incompetent."

Rei paled, and amended hastily, "No, no of course not....but let me come too then. I'm a priestess, I know about-"

"No!" Setsuna snapped, banging her fist against the table. "No! Hotaru and Ami. That is all. I will not risk any more senshi's lives in what is very likely a futile attempt! Absolutely no more than these two, for the reasons they have stated! Space is my realm, and I will not allow it!" The quiet fury in Setsuna's voice negated any further argument. "Absolutely not," she repeated, looking each in the eyes. "Such a thing has never been attempted outside of myth. I do not know if it will even work. Nothing may happen. Or they may die. I do not know. I will not risk the lives of any more senshi. That is final."

And so it was decided. To the Underworld, only two would go. 

So, how's the fic so far? Don't forget to sign a review! It's always great to know someone appreciates your story. ^_~ 

-Queen


	3. A Web of Sunset and Shadow

The Weaver of Dreams

Which way should I go? Where should I put myself? Not knowing the answer, I continue wearily existing.

-Murasaki Shikibu

Chapter 2- A Web of Sunset and Shadow

It would have been a lovely night, if not for the screams. There was a cool breeze, enough to stir the hair, or send the leaves of plants to rustling. If you looked to the sky, your eyes would meet with the starry heavens, the thick curve of the white swirled Earth hanging heavily in its mantle. But this night was a fated night, and the screams were accompanied by the clangor of battle. Outside the palace walls, great winged starships were landing, one by one, their sails furling as they settled into the moondust. 

Usagi watched all this in a distant stated, floating high above the clashing of palace guards and soldiers of Earth. Her feet were cold, and the nightgown rippled in the faint breeze, catching at her unbound hair. The sick feeling in her stomach was from recognition. This was, after all, the last battle the Silver Millennium of the past would ever see. The fragmented memories she held showed her what happened...and still to see it before her eyes brought fresher tears. 

"Mamo-chan?"

The word brought a change in her location, her feet touching the bare cobblestones of a courtyard. It was decorated prettily, with heavy marble pots. Silver roses grew from them, and the shadows cut by the earthlight did not seem to make them fade. There were doors, locked, that circled the round, empty space, set between columns that arched into a solar above. Usagi turned when she heard hard breathing and the sound of footsteps. Running footsteps. 

"Here...Endymion, here!" 

There was a darkness around the edges of her vision and a dizziness. That was her own voice. 

"We can get to a ship...get away...." Out through the empty archway, Usagi witnessed herself emerge, her white gown flying alongside Endymion's dark cloak. "This one...you can pilot, can't you?"

"If I know the system...." The Prince of Earth and the Princess of the Moon began to fumble with the doorknob. "It's locked."

"No! It can't be locked, it's never locked!" Serenity was near to hysterical, her voice ending in sobs. "It's never locked...."

The royal pair twisted at the door, Endymion throwing his weight against it in a futile attempt. As he began to reach for his sword, to hack the knob off, Usagi became aware of another presence in the room. 

There was a girl there, a young woman. She was tall, muscular in a lean way, and though not lovely, striking. The hair down her back was black and wavy, and Usagi recognized her as the girl who had first appeared in the mirror not so very long ago. She held in her hand a sword, finely wrought. There was wet blood on it. "Endymion."

Usagi watched the past shadow of herself and Endymion stop struggling, to turn and face their enemy. 

"Murderer," the stranger continued, her eyes growing harder as she saw Endymion place his arm around Serenity. To protect her, of course.

"You can call me that," Endymion said in disbelief, "after what you've done?"

Several reactions flickered dangerously across the face of the woman. Usagi felt her confusion from where she stood. She saw it clearly on the woman's face, and within the piercing pain of the moment, felt pity for her. The expressions were fear, hope, guilt, remorse, love...and finally hate. Her eyes became ice, and Usagi felt a familiar, evil presence, the aura of the long dead Metallia. 

"Endymion. Die." 

Usagi saw herself gasp, a hand clutching the sleeve of her love. But it didn't seem to matter to Endymion. He stepped forward anyway, and Usagi could not prevent herself from trying to move forward, to come between them, to stop this insane dream. Insane nightmare. Before she had moved forward more than a pace, she found an arm blocking her movement, outstretched and barring her path. Usagi looked to see the stranger from the mirror, her own reflection, who was looking away and frowning. 

The opponents faced each other, bowing politely. It seemed ludicrous to Usagi, but no stranger than, perhaps, announcing that she would punish villains in the name of a lost civilization. Then the battle began, the clang of metal against metal, slashing and stabbing violently against each other. She saw her own form, huddled against the door, too terrified to put a stop to the oncoming end. Endymion, for all his skill, was tiring, and the woman...the woman danced, her body beautiful in the deadliness of it. She stabbed, and Serenity screamed as it cut too closely, the sound echoed by Usagi, still held back by the barring arm. 

"Why?" The woman demanded, sword arching forward again.

"I love her."

The sound was pitiful when she asked, "Why?"

"How can one explain why?" And that was true. What list of qualifications could one give? Was love a market, to be bought and sold?

"Is it because she's beautiful?" The woman was twirling now, her feet flying in circles as Endymion's grew stilled. "I may not be beautiful, but I'm strong! I would have done everything she would have for you! I would have been just as good a wife!" The final words were torn from her throat, as though they were a plea. But the impact of the words caused Endymion to freeze, their implications settling into his mind. She, though, did not hesitate, and the dance ended as her blade struck deep. 

He gasped at the impact, and Usagi heard screams echo in the place, one from Serenity, one from the woman, and one from herself. And it was that, in the end, that broke the spell over the Princess of the Moon, and she pushed herself from the comfort of the door, falling to grab him as he slid back off the sword, catching him as he fell. Blood pooled from Endymion's chest, painting the whiteness of Serenity's gown, dyeing it scarlet. 

"Endymion, my love," the words of the girl whispered into the silence as she touched his face, closing his startled eyes. The light shed from the Earth was very bright there, and Usagi watched herself tilt her head, eyes settling on Endymion's dropped sword. 

"I loved him, too," the stranger informed Serenity. It was her reason, not her excuse. Serenity, who could always seem to see into the heart of a person, smiled gently as she decided her course of action. 

"I know," the Princess told her, and then pointed Endymion's blade at her own belly. Within a moment, the blade was cutting into her, and her own blood mingled with that of her Prince. 

From there, time halted.

The look of surprise on Serenity's gentle face. 

The empty eyes of the woman, and how her sword slipped from numbed fingers to the ground. 

"Pretty violent, aren't they?" Usagi told herself, the reflection in her school uniform dropping her arm, then examining her manicure with distant interest. "Not exactly kiddie fare, is it?" She yawned, then clasped her hands together dramatically. "Romeo, O Romeo, what happens when the Juliet is a wimp?"

Usagi could only watch herself, the expression of loss and surprise that was written on her past self's features. "That was..." Usagi looked to the stranger, the empty eyes, so void of emotion. "Beryl, wasn't it?"

"Brilliant!" Usagi staggered when she was slapped extremely hard on her back. "So brilliant! You should use those brain cells on your tests, Usagi-chan!" The laughter should have been harsh, but it was identical to Usagi's own, the reflection being her twin. "Then again, you don't remember everything about the past, do you? Just that Princess Beryl here decided she wanted your precious loverboy, and ended up killing him. Shame, isn't it? That she had to die?" The reflection moved herself to stand beside the statue of Beryl, peering up into her face, then tapping her on the head with her knuckles, giggling when the frozen memory did not move. 

Usagi gathered up her wits. Memories, clear, fresh ones of her life, came flooding in. Beryl sending the Generals after her and her senshi. One by one, defeating them. One by one, dying. Until the four were gone, and Beryl at last had her Mamo-chan, under spell and made her enemy. Then Beryl herself had appeared. There had been no hesitation then. No looks of remorse when she had tried to kill Sailor Moon. Usagi pulled herself upright, chin in the air. "Beryl was evil."

The reflection glanced up from making silly faces at Beryl. An eyebrow arched. "Evil? Really? Quite a statement for one who doesn't even remember all this that clearly."

That unnerved Usagi. She remembered this...but it was fragmented, the shards of a broken kaleidoscope, the memories of a dream. "Beryl was evil," she repeated, though not so sure this time. 

"Mm. So," the reflection hesitated, looking as though she were concentrating very hard, "let me get this straight. Out of pretty much nowhere, Beryl here, who always looked exactly like she did in your time, popped out of the thin air. Then, she proceeded to brainwash Endymion's guardians, who were considered strong enough to protect him. When she was ready, poof!" Her fingers snapped as she walked around, near to laughter, a fake smile and wave. "Poof! 'Hello, my name is Queen Beryl, and I'm here to take over your planet today,'" the shadow version of Usagi broke out into laughter as she faced her nightgowned counterpart. "Goes pretty well right along with, 'Would you like fries with that?'"

Usagi could only look at the three figures that lay in the dimmed pool of light. "She tried to kill us."

"Mm, yeah. So? You think everythingis that easy? That there's good, there's evil, and one will win out? Tch," fingers waved dismissively at the sound. "Please. Don't be as naive as you usually are, Usagi-chan. If you think you're going to be a Queen someday, you need to understand the shades of grey. And believe me. There are a lot of them."

Hearing the off hand way it was said, Usagi looked at the reflection of herself. "The Silver Millennium will be a time of peace...."

"Oh really?" Eyebrows lifted, she shook her head. "And at the price of what? How will you maintain rule? Force? Love and friendship? So long as someone out there wants to kick the crap out of their neighbors, there's going to be fighting. Take a look."

The world shifted, and the Earth filled Usagi's eyes, the beautiful blue and green orb where white clouds swirled in the sky. The sun glowed brightly behind it, and in a great distance, shining planets circled. 

"How many billion people on your world? What's a good number? A billion? Oh, wait, you passed that. Six billion? Seven? Eight? All of them working for love and friendship. Won't it be grand? Good thing, that Crystal of yours. Nice, snap ending to it all. What happens to a world without that? Do they just keep ruining their planet?" 

From her vantage point, many images came into view. Crowded cities, corrupted people, hate and lies and pollution in the air and water, ruining the earth, the soil. 

"What happens when too many people compete for not enough resources? Lucky, lucky you, being able to use your pretty Crystal. Clean it all up, real nice. It'll all work out real well, won't it? The perfection of your future, Rabbit of the Moon?"

Usagi felt...a little doubt creep in.

The ride to the temple on the hill seemed to take forever. 

No one knew quite what to expect from the decision made by Setsuna, Hotaru and Ami. Michiru was furious, that Setsuna was allowing Hotaru to attempt such a thing. Haruka literally had to lead her away, her outraged voice echoing down the tiled halls. Each of the senshi were uncertain, wanting to help, but terrified of the consequences. Then, recognizing their fears, loudly trying to join the pair going. 

A security guard came over, and warned them that they needed to keep their voices down. It was disturbing to the other visitors. He had said this to Makoto, who had nearly begun a brawl over the comment. Slowly, Setsuna took charge of the situation. With Haruka gone, and Minako unsure what to do, she felt it was her responsibility. It was, after all, her power that would be possibly killing her adopted daughter, and fellow senshi. 

With her usual calm, Setsuna had suggested to Minako that perhaps Small Lady and Mamoru would like something to eat. It had worked beautifully. The idea in Minako's head, she grabbed Makoto, and began to cook up an idea to get them something better than hospital food. It was a little thing, but it occupied the stressed out Inners. From there, Setsuna knew they would need privacy. Quiet. Rei's temple would be ideal. 

And so the four of them, Soldiers of Fire, Water, Time and Death, all headed out to Setsuna's waiting car, leaving the others to their own worries. The ride was silent, each thinking about what would need to be done, preoccupied with the undertaking they were about to attempt. 

The room was silent, save for the crackling of the spirit fire. Rei had dressed in her priestess robes, glad for the familiar feel of the loose clothing and its folds. Her palms were sweaty, and she rubbed them on the red pants, leaving prints where they touched. Entering the room, she saw that Setsuna had already transformed, the fuku of the Guardian of the Gates replacing her stylish deep red suit. 

So very quiet it was, at the temple. All things were still. Though if one listened to the sounds of the evening, the noise of the cicada could be heard, in the noisy way of insects. 

"Ready?" Rei asked, and Pluto nodded, the Timestaff turning uneasily in her hands. They looked at the awaiting pair on the tatami mat, kneeling across from each other and looking wide eyed up at the other girls. Each nodded once in turn, then meeting the other's gaze, adjusting their skirts distractedly, a habitual motion that calmed them. 

"Ami-chan?" Hotaru asked, reaching out. "Hold onto my hand?"

Hesitating as she looked at the empty palm, Ami wondered if Hotaru was seeking comfort, or giving it. Perhaps both. Each of their hands trembled a little as they fit together. 

"I'm going to chant for good-luck," Rei informed them, briskly going to sit far too close to the fire. Her sleek form was made a dark shadow in the center of the flames, her black hair glinting violet. Softly, from where she knelt, the low sound of her chant rose. And if the other three had not been so intent on their business, they would have felt an enormous heat prickle through the room, the energy of burning, purifying fire.

"As I have said," Pluto told Ami and Hotaru as she knelt in the space beside them, "I do not know what the result of this will be. The keys to the fourth dimension allow for a road that must not be traveled, for it leads to the realms of death. The door to that road has never been opened," Pluto then took a key from the chain at her belt. Her garnet eyes reflected the fire steadily, though she bit her lip with nervousness. After a moment, she sighed, then wrapped an arm around each of them. "Be careful. Both of you."

Then she released them very quickly, as though embarrassed that she could show such affection. Ami and Hotaru had not broken their grasping of hands, and into their other, outstretched palms, Pluto placed the key. 

It was a road, a road of light and water, and it was traveled swiftly and slowly at once, transversing space and time with a sense that cannot be described. Stars were born, then blackened as they died, swimming in an endless cycle of of life, the wheel of the stars. Faces of those long dead, and faces of those yet to come became reflected on the mirrors that presented themselves to their minds. They could see the past, the present and the future mix as one, their hearts beating in rhythm to the pulse of the stars. Time had no meaning here, nor did death. 

If Ami listened hard enough, she could hear the sound of a _koto_ playing lightly on the wind of the road, a sad tune, with words she did not recognize. And as the sound grew stronger, it also faded away, escaping her reach, as her fingers clasped instead the hand of a younger girl. 

"Hotaru-chan?" Her legs stretched out beyond her, Ami gathered herself, and patted the girl's hand. "Hotaru-chan? Wake up?I think...I think it worked...."

Her dark blue eyes were still filled with a kind of water, making the world distorted. She groaned, a feeling like seasickness rippling though her. She crawled a bit closer to Hotaru, and a soft moan escaped her lips as her violet eyes opened to the sunset sky. "What bus hit me?"

Ami couldn't help but giggle, hearing that come out of Hotaru. "Are you all right?"

"Hai...."

Shaking her head, Ami began to stand, relief rolling over her. "Well," she joked lightly, "leave it to the Sailor Senshi to make looking to the Underworld look easy, and getting inside Usagi-chan's head look hard!"

Pushing herself up with a grin, Hotaru looked around, her breath short as she took in the beauty of the world around her. "Oh, Ami-chan, do you see it?"

Her own gaze flying around, Ami did see it. They sat on a tiny island in the middle of a lake without end. Very gentle water lapped at the lip of their island, and the sky above was an eternal sunset of royal purple, sending the waters shimmering in a vast array of rich color, sparkles dancing on the bobbing waves. Ami released Hotaru's hand and went to peer over the edge, looking down to see the depth of the water. 

"It looks deep," she said with a frown. "We might have to swim."

Hotaru was staring blankly at her. 

"Nani, Hotaru-chan?"

"Ah, Ami-chan, swim in what? It's light," as though to prove this, Hotaru stood beside Ami, and moved as though plunging her arm deep into something. "It's just like..." she laughed as she pulled her arm out. She opened her palm, and in it seemed to see something dance, tiny pinpricks of light. "Look, they're fireflies!" 

Puzzled at what Hotaru was seeing, Ami watched her. There was no reason to think Hotaru wasn't seeing fireflies. In fact, if anyone was seeing something wrong, Ami decided it was herself. After all, wasn't Hotaru in her own element? "I see water. A lake without land."

"I see light. It's beautiful, too, white and pink and lavender and yellow, dancing." With that, Hotaru placed a foot into the brightness she saw, and the image that came to Ami's eyes was that of ripples of water around a foot. "Come, it's solid, let's go." Hotaru grabbed Ami's hand, and began to pull her in. 

"Hotaru, wait-" but her words stopped, as she discovered she was standing on the water, her reflection around her feet. "Oh...that was...." when she looked up again, the lake was nowhere to be seen. "...odd." Ami finished lamely, staring up at the large, towering buildings overhead. It seemed that the great lake was now nothing more than a puddle in the middle of the sidewalk. "Hotaru, did things just...."

"Switch? Hai, they did...do you see...."

"A city?"

"Yes," they looked around, up at the streetlight that was pouring light down onto the puddle they stood on, even though the sky was still lit with the royal colors of the sunset, robing the towering buildings in dying light. "Where are we?"

Ami looked at the road beside them, eyes tracking to the stop sign, the four-way light and the street name. Though the letters were there, they shifted and blurred in Ami's vision, and she could not read them. It was a generic street, in what could have been any city in the world, paved, parked with cars and lined with shops. Though the strange thing was, it was silent. None of the cars moved. Ami blinked suddenly. "Hotaru! The key! Do you have Pluto's key?"

Hotaru gasped as they hurriedly checked their pockets, emptying them and finding nothing. "No, Ami! Look!" Hotaru's hand shot out and grabbed something hanging from Ami's neck. "Here...." she breathed a sigh of relief as the key emerged on a delicate silver chain. "You have it."

But even as Hotaru had seen Ami's, Ami had spotted Hotaru's. "So do you," Ami replied, pulling the gold chain from around Hotaru's neck. "This is getting very strange."

"Setsuna-mama said she didn't know what would happen."

"But the key _splitting? _That can't be normal."

"Ami...." Hotaru turned and appeared to be sensing the world they were in. "I don't think there is a 'normal' here." Her eyes opened, and she sighed. "I can feel this place. But I can't describe it. It's so strange. Not bad, but...strange."

Trying to find some ground for her mind to balance on, Ami took a breath and decided, "Then we should hope that they both work. But we have to assume they don't. We should try to find some people. If this is the Underworld, shouldn't there be...um, souls? Ghosts?"

Hotaru actually laughed, a happy, easy sound. "You almost sound afraid of a ghost! Is that not what your friend Kami is?"

Ami blushed, embarrassed to be caught in her fears. "You're right. I'm being silly. I shouldn't assume it's hellfire and brimstone. Just as much as I shouldn't assume it's pearly gates. So far, we haven't seen either."

Hotaru nodded. "Then lets get moving. I agree, we do need to find someone to give us directions. Directions to where, I don't really know...." Her voice trailed off as she looked up and down the street. "There must be so many people here. All those who have died...think of the numbers...."

"Assuming they aren't all reborn to some level. I mean, we don't know anything about this place at all...if we were in Hellenic times, we should have been greeted at a river, with a coin under our tongue to give to Charon. Or if we were in Britain...."

She didn't get to finish, since an ear shattering, outraged shriek filled the air, echoing to where the girls stood. Neither of them hesitated an instant, breaking into a dead run for the sound. What they found was both surprising and amusing. A man and a woman stood on the next corner, the man in bellbottom jeans, and a leather vest, love beads around his neck, partially covered by long hair and a dark beard. The woman with him, however, was wearing a Donna Karan power suit in flaming red, with shoulder pads, stiletto heels and blonde hair so full and teased that it was overwhelming. The ultimate essences of the sixties and the eighties, suddenly meeting on an empty corner street in the seemingly empty Underworld. 

The woman's purse swung around her head in an arch, meeting with a thwack on the man's arms, which were covering his head. "You ninny!" The woman screeched, "How could you possibly think a nudist colony is the answer the the world's problems? Idiot! How much pot did you smoke when you were alive? Idiot!"

"Ow! Brenda! Knock it off! My head!"

"What? A few more brain cells gone? Ha! I didn't think you'd miss-"

"Excuse me...." Ami began, but was not exactly heard over Brenda's overreactive screaming. "Um...excuse...."

"Try whistling again, Ami-chan. If it worked on the senshi...." Hotaru waved a hand at them. Ami looked a little embarrassed, then put her fingers in her mouth and whistled loudly. The two stopped, staring at the other two. 

"Konnichiwa," Ami said. 

The man blinked first, then bowed, "Ah! Gurus from the East! Enlighten this bizarre woman...."

"I'll give you 'bizarre' you pothead!" The purse went into a new rain of pounding. 

Ami and Hotaru looked at each other, staring. "Well," Hotaru said after a moment, "she can't kill him."

They watched Brenda assault the man another minute or two, until she finally calmed herself. "Humph!" she huffed, "That for women's lib! Bra burning!" Her whole attitude suddenly changed as she focused in on the girls, becoming very sweet and apologetic. "Oh, sorry about all that. Charles is such a-"

"Chuck! It's Chuck! My grandmother called me Charles!"

Brenda continued, oblivious, "Charles tends to say stupid things. Don't listen to him. Are you ladies new?"

Ami and Hotaru glanced at each other, then Ami spoke. "Yes...a...ah...car accident."

Brenda nodded seriously, then shook her head. "Poor dears. It wasn't one of those drunk drivers was it? My husband was a drunk! Stupid bastard! If I could get back up to the surface, I'd haunt him until he died, then I'd haunt him through his whole afterlife! Stupid...." Brenda suddenly caught herself sounding slightly demented, and laughed nervously as Chuck frowned at her. "Ah..heh. Sorry. Such a shame. Don't worry, you'll get used to it. It's strange when you start, but it gets better. Your parents all right?"

Another look between Ami and Hotaru. This time, Hotaru spoke. "Haruka-papa is a great driver," and she let it hang at that. Brenda and Chuck exchanged their own glance. 

"Hey, don't worry. I died in a car accident," Chuck informed them with a shrug. "You girls lost? You really shouldn't be out in this area. Gets kinda lonely."

Ami leapt in. "We're looking for an old friend of mine...ah, actually," Ami blushed, embarrassed, "I don't know her real name...I called her Kami....I don't suppose a description would help."

The two shook their heads. "No," Brenda began, "but how did she die? Sometimes we hang around in groups. Not always," she sent a glare at Chuck, "but sometimes."

"She drowned herself."

The two blinked, Chuck looking a little sorry, but Brenda sniffing, "Oh. One of _those_."

Chuck snorted. "You committed suicide."

"I had _cancer_, you half-witted Deadhead!"

"Yeah, _lung _cancer. From all those cigarettes."

Brenda screeched, and Ami and Hotaru clapped their hands over their ears to block the noise, gritting their teeth. When Chuck had sustained enough further abuse, Brenda calmed herself again, straightening out the designer suit to perfection. 

"That is it. This friendship is over. I am sick and tired of hearing your stupid hippie Age of Aquarius babble," Brenda turned on her spiked heel and stalked off, leaving Chuck to shake his head. When he noticed Ami and Hotaru's somewhat stunned faces, he laughed, leaning against the wall of the building. 

"Don't get upset about Brenda. She does this at least once a week. Or at least, we think it's once a week. Time does weird things here. She'll be back in five minutes, tops, with a new suit or purse. Don't let her get to you."

"Oh...." Was all they could say. Finally, Hotaru managed, "Chuck-san, so you know where we could find Kami? Even though she killed herself?"

Chuck shrugged, and tugged thoughtfully at his beard. "Well, let's see. I don't know. You can try following the Yellow Brick Road. That takes you just about anywhere you want."

More blinking. 

"The Yellow Brick Road."

"Yup. Look," Chuck pointed, and in fact, the street beside them was now yellow brick, gleaming as it led out of the city. 

Strange thing was, when they recovered from looking at the Yellow Brick Road, Chuck was as gone as Brenda. 

"Hotaru-chan?"

"Hai?"

"This place is very strange."

Hotaru just nodded in agreement, and they began their trek down the Yellow Brick Road. 

"I'll show you what our power is made of!" 

Usagi heard these words ring out loudly, and the power that built in the air grow stronger as the strength of the Silver Crystal and Holy Grail were summoned. All around her, she saw the figures of her fellow senshi, the colors of their planets rainbowing across their fighting line, a cosmos of beautiful flying colors. Looking up, she saw the nightmarish figure of Nephrenia, her black hair coiling out from her head as she attacked them. 

This was a scene Usagi remembered very well. How she had gained her power as Eternal Sailor Moon, her friends sending her their power, catching it all in her Holy Grail. Mamoru's Golden Crystal had become unsealed, strengthening her and pushing her into her highest form. And when Usagi looked at her hands, she saw her white gloves, and looked down at her fuku, the blue of the skirt and the red boots. Then she blinked in surprise. Her skirt was solid colored. 

Her head jerked up, and she took in the several things that were amiss. To begin with, Chibiusa wasn't there. There was a little girl in the battle line, but her hair was black, not pink. And it was in a perfect little red bow. Then she realized that it had not been her own voice that had just called out, and the energy of the planets was not forming in her hands. 

It was in Minako's. 

As Usagi watched, Minako rushed forward, her usual uniform fuller and more elaborate than those of the others, multicolored. She lifted her hands to the air, and her fingers stretched outward, as delicate as the wings on the Grail she summoned. Minako held it high overhead, back arched to display their power perfectly. Into this, she heard voices begin to shout, their strength blending into the Holy Grail. 

"Marina Castle of my Mother Star Mercury!"

"Phobos Demios Castle of Mars!"

She saw their aural lights blaze, and make the transfer to the Grail. "No..." Usagi whispered, shaking her head. Then she frowned, watching the scene. "No! I'm Sailor Moon! I'm the holder of the Grail! What are you doing?"

"Io Castle of Jupiter!"

"Stop it! This is my fight! I'm supposed to protect everyone!"

"Miranda Castle of my Star Uranus!"

Furious, Usagi shouted, "Traitors! What are you doing? That's my power!"

"Triton Castle of my Star Neptune!"

Running forward, Usagi tried to reach the figure of Minako, but found herself barred from. Two familiar blue eyes locked down into hers. "Mamo-chan! What is going on?"

"Mamo-chan?" He repeated, looking confused a moment, then shook it off, the frown on his face deepening. "Get out of the way! Why aren't you helping her?"

"Help her? I'm the holder of the Grail! I'm the Messiah!"

"Are you insane? Get out of here!" Tuxedo Kamen pushed her back, not hard, but enough to send Usagi to her knees. 

"Charon Castle of my Star Pluto!"

Confused and angry, Usagi watched the scene. The power of the planets were growing around Minako, and she saw the eyes of Nephrenia widen, as she screamed, "Queen Serenity? No, this can't be happening!" 

"I'm Princess Serenity!" Usagi cried in desperation, fists beating the ground, though no one seemed to be listening to her. "I'm the holder of the Crystal!"

Then she saw what the others did. On Minako's forehead was the crescent moon of the Silver Millennium, glowing brightly as power poured into her heart, lending it strength. 

"Titan Castle of my Star Saturn!" 

"Minako is not the Princess!"

Then, into this, came a younger voice, similar to Chibiusa's in age, though it was not hers. "Crystal Palace of the Thirtieth Century! Your power!" And brilliant yellow light joined the racing colors of each planet, swirling together as the girl lifted her hand upward. 

"No! Stop it! Stop it now! This isn't what happened!"

Then it grew very quiet.

"You know, it's funny," came Usagi's own voice from the waltz of light around Minako. As one would expect, the reflection of Usagi stepped out from the slashes of darkness between the lights. "Minako supported you through nearly two years of your being Sailor Moon. You can't help her through two minutes of her holding the Crystal? Some selfless friend you are."

The school uniformed figure of Usagi approached the one in the fuku, who was near to tears, her voice ragged as she sobbed. "Who are you? Why are you doing this to me?"

"Who am I?" An eyebrow arched, then the reflection scratched her head a bit, considering the question. "Well, all those tears just melt my heart. My name is Tsukino Usagi, Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon, also Princess Serenity, the future Neo-Queen Serenity. But I suppose that gets to be a bit confusing for you. So...I guess. Let's see. Artemis? No, that's your friends' cats' name. Luna? Diana? Geez, how many cats do you people have? Hm. Maybe something not so moon-related. Oh! I have it. Fury. You can call me Fury if you like, though that's really not my name, Moon Rabbit."

"What's so special about Fury?" Usagi asked as she rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, tears running against the skin.

"Ugh, are you really that dense? Didn't you ever pay attention? Hmph. I know you did, since I know it, and I'm you.The Furies were the goddesses of guilt and conscience. Don't you ever listen to Ami when she babbles about her books?" Fury put her hands on her hips, frowning down at Usagi. 

"You know she was supposed to be the Moon Princess, don't you?"

"Ami?"

"Minako!"

"Minako-chan? No...she just pretended to be the Princess...to trick Beryl...."

Flipping a length of hair over her shoulder, Fury sniffed, then turned to go stand by the frozen figures of the senshi. "You know, this is kinda fun, freezing people like this. They look just like statues." She stuck her tongue out at Sailor Mars. "Can't annoy me back. But anyway," she moved along the line, stopping between Uranus and Neptune, "aren't they so cute?" She ruffled Uranus' hair, then patted Neptune on the head, grinning as she considered Uranus' face. "You know, it's weird. Neptune seems to be your opposite, yet this one seems to have a thing for both of you. Weird, isn't it?" She left the pair, moving on to other senshi. 

"Sweet, isn't it, that just about everyone falls in love with you. Or your Mamo-chan. I could never figure it out. All that sweet purity you two just radiate."

Usagi was gathering herself up, and she looked at the frozen figures before her, the enemy that was caught in her expression of horror, and the beautiful display that the senshi used as their weapon, their souls. "My friends would never desert me."

"Mm? Oh, I suppose not..." Fury stepped around them, appraising each in turn, coming to a halt at Pluto. "Then there are those that couldn't help themselves," Fury said, finger to her chin in consideration. "Did you know she's got a bit of a crush on your Mamo-chan?"

"Setsuna-san?" Usagi walked forward a step, staring in disbelief, only to halt when Fury looked at her, an eyebrow lifted. 

"King Endymion, to be a little more precise," she continued, then waved a hand, and the scene altered subtly, Pluto warping from the place she stood to be replaced with a more usually attired Minako. As expected, the figure of Setsuna now stood in the line's forefront, hands upraised and hair floating upward. "Makes one think, doesn't it? If you all have such pure hearts, why not Setsuna? Or Minako? Ami? Rei, Makoto? Makoto is the princess of the largest planet in the system. Why not her? Something special about each. What makes you more important than them?"

"I...I...."

"I...I..." Fury repeated sarcastically, then sighing,placing a hand to her temple. "You were pretty happy, finding out that you were the Princess, weren't you?"

Usagi looked at each face of the battle line, eyes lingering on that of Tuxedo Kamen, his mask gone, lost in the battle, revealing his blue eyes. "I'd give my life for my friends. We would have been happier if we were just normal girls."

"True, true," Fury agreed, actually sounding honest. "And they'd give their lives for you. Considerate of them, isn't it? But really," she snapped her fingers, and once again Minako stood in the prominent place, her golden hair streaming about her as the stilled Holy Grail floated in the bubble between her fingers. "Think about it...I know you thought it was just _so_ cool to think you were talking to a real Princess when you found her. But don't try to tell me you didn't think there was something a little odd about the fact that she was just 'Sailor V' and you were 'Sailor Moon'...and yet she was still the Moon Princess."

Usagi bit her lip. The thought had occurred. 

"If it turned out she was the Princess, well, then this would be her story, wouldn't it? You'd just be a side character, a sidekick, just like they are to you."

"They are not just sidekicks!"

Fury snorted, approaching Usagi. "Please. You get to save everyone, time and again. Why? Oh, your heart is the strongest. The purest. Funny, it's never even been tested. No lemures of the Dead Moon invaded your mind. So _I'm_ testing you instead." Fury pushed her face uncomfortably close to Usagi's. "Think you can handle it?"

Good? Bad? 

Let me know, please! Anyway, if you're curious about the first dream scene in this chapter, and why Beryl is put in the light she is, can I plug shamelessly for my other fic, _'The Stone Hearted Princess'_? I had a very interesting time writing that scene, this time in third person. 

If you're wondering about the second dream sequence, this occurs in the SuperS manga. Sailormoon gets her Eternal Power at the end of SuperS, not the beginning of Stars. 

Anyway, let me know what you think!

-Queen


	4. A Tangle of Dreams

The Weaver of Dreams

More remote, I fear, my place of exile, than the storied ones in lands beyond the seas.

-Murasaki Shikibu

Chapter 3- A Tangle of Dreams

They walked until their feet were sore and red, the world around the Yellow Brick Road blurring with surreal ability, flexing and stretching as they moved. The Yellow Bricks seemed to continue on forever, and each location they passed was just as empty as the next, sometimes empty plain, grasses high, others halls of concrete. They trudged through cities in seconds, and flew through marshes in hours. Each place was unique from the next, the memory of a land or place long lost. Some cities were modern, others ancient. Some were villages, some temples to forgotten gods of Earth. Yet through all this, neither Soldier of Death nor Soldier of Water could shake the feeling that they roamed in endless circles. 

"Ami-chan," Hotaru said at last. "I need to rest...." She had a hand to her chest, and though did not breath hard, looked worn. 

Ami agreed, walking carefully beside Hotaru. She didn't take the younger girl's arm. Hotaru was far stronger after her rebirth, and did not need the same help she did before the banishment of Mistress Nine. But there were times that worried them, such as this. Ami was careful not to suggest that Hotaru was weak, and needed help, though she was there if Hotaru requested it. "It's tiring, just walking. This looks like as good a place as any to take a break."

In fact, it was a lovely area, just within a forest that they had been traveling through the last hour. Pine trees scattered the Yellow Brick Road, along with maples and oak, their branches twining confusedly overhead in delicate wooden fingers. There was little grass, but some grew sparsely around a white rock beside one of the maples, and they sat upon it, breathing. 

"We're going in circles, Ami-chan," Hotaru stated, breaking the silence. 

"Is there anything we can do? To move faster? The entire Underworld can't be empty."

Hotaru tilted her head up to the sunset lit branches. "There's something we're not doing right. Have you noticed that it's still sunset?"

"Hai, I have," Ami said, bending down and removing a shoe, rubbing her foot. The sole was red where her heel hit the ground from walking. "And I'm not hungry."

"Didn't those strange people say something about time being different?"

"They only _thought_ Brenda got upset once a week. Time is different here."

Hotaru smoothed the skirt of her uniform, her hands pale white against the darkness of the pleats. "I can sense this place. It's different than the real world. Like a dream."

"It's distorted..." Ami agreed softly, closing her eyes and feeling the sunset against her eyelids. "It feels like...I don't know. The way Infinity College did. Out of place. But this...I don't think it's evil."

When Ami opened her eyes, Hotaru had a small, considering smile on her lips. "Setsuna-mama always said you should have a good feel for dimensions."

Ami looked embarrassed, placing a hand to her mouth. "Oh...ah...well. Maybe all that studying of physics has rubbed off a bit...." She tucked a lock of hair behind an ear, then frowned as the light shifted above them. "Hotaru-chan, did you just see something?"

Hotaru was on her feet, looking up even as Ami was. "There's something here. A shadow."

"A shadow?" 

And as if in answer to Ami's slightly bewildered question, a sound reached their ears, as though falling in from above, accompanied by the sound of foliage moving. To each side of them, the forest circled, the heavy trunks closing. The music that rained from above would have been a beautiful sound if it did not sound so out of tune, the sound of a harp being plucked by a rusted nail. It was too harsh for any kind of music. And the sound grew louder. Much louder, as the shadow above grew larger. 

Through the sunlit branches, a blackness descended, blotting out the sunlight as it swung its way onto the lower branch of a maple across the Road. And as it settled its feathers, they saw what it was, and that it was the wings of this strange creature that created the sound. 

A ragged face poked out of ash grey feathers around its neck, feminine in the sense that it was slender and narrow, though warped by mottled skin, flecked with warts. Wild black hair rustled around its head, and taloned feet clutched the branch. Bent wings sprouted from the thing's back, and as she moved, they struck the strange music as they met. 

"A harpy," Ami realized out loud, recognizing it from her books. And knowing what it was, and the fact that they were in the Underworld, Ami backed a little closer to Hotaru, an arm out in what could be recognized as her defensive posture. Harpies, as they are remembered in legend, were known as many different things. One of the breeds lived in the Underworld, and sought out souls to punish for their sins in life. "Hotaru...."

Hotaru had already angled herself to the side, an eye on the existing harpy, who watched them with wide black eyes. Eyes skimming the rest of the forest, she heard the others approaching before she saw them, their wings signaling their arrival. 

"You two...are very interesting specimens," the harpy before them decided, her head twisted abnormally to one side, horizontal to them. Her voice was rough, though high pitched. "Never seen living souls like you here. No, never, never. Interesting to play with."

The first of the harpy's sisters settled down, the rest not far behind, the air filled with screeching plucked sounds. Each harpy was identical, yet slightly different, much in the way mirror twins are alike. Different, yet the same. And with these creatures there was an eeriness in their stares. Then came the whispers.

"Living souls?"

"Cannot be. Never. No, never."

"Fun...."

"See their nightmares."

"How are they here?"

"Ha...living...."

The two senshi backed closer together, looking up at the flock now around them. One of the largest had settled beside the first, and her face was the most lined of them all. At last, she spoke harshly through the whispers of her sisters. "Living souls do not belong here," her eyes peered down with old eyes through the branches. "You think you are heroes? Break the taboo? Living stay." There were many screeching sounds of agreement from the assembly in the branches. 

Hotaru, Soldier of Death, turned to face the harpy, who she believed to be the leader, since she spoke for all above. She tested her limit here. "I order you to leave us alone. We have committed no crimes against you. We don't want to fight."

That brought screaming laughter, and Hotaru's face set, eyes narrowing as she was laughed at. At last, the old harpy said, "Do you think you're Hades, to order us about?" The rest of her words were lost in the garbled sounds of her laughter. 

Muttering under her breath, Hotaru could have said, "Close enough," but Ami wasn't sure she heard her right. "Ami-chan," she heard more clearly, I think we can still henshin...."

"Hai. Mercury..."

The harpies took that moment to attack, falling in swoops from their perches on the branches, their wings sending up a painful, splitting sound, the air filling with it and beating against their two victims. It was their nature, to find the darkness in a person's heart, and to find the crimes they commit. The talons they stretched outward would have cut into their victim's hearts, cutting them to shreds. And they were swift, coming from all directions. 

Into the storm of wings and screaming, a sleek, golden figure leapt, roaring her fury. A lioness, sinking her teeth into the neck of the harpy that came too close to Ami, who had been forced to abandon her henshin to dive down, in an attempt to not be struck by the talons. 

The lioness took a defensive stance before the girls, Ami clambering back to her feet as the lioness began to change her form, rearing up and back, the unmistakable figure of a woman took shape. She was armed with arrows, and gracefully swept one out of the quiver on her back, nocking it and releasing it to fly swiftly into the neck of an oncoming harpy. 

"If you two have weapons, I suggest you use them now!" The woman called encouragingly over her shoulder, a delighted smile on her face. Two more arrows flew, and the woman leapt forward, a fierce battle shriek adding to the clamor of wings. 

"Mercury Crystal Power!"

"Saturn Crystal Power!"

"Make-up!"

The fighting woman let out a shout of joy when she saw the magic surround the two she rescued. Rippling colors of blue and purple sent electric bolts of energy though the clearing, and several fresh arrows fell in a volley around the transforming girls. Not one of the harpies got close enough to interrupt. 

"Protected by my star Mercury, I am Sailor Mercury, Soldier of Wisdom! I will punish you in the name of Mercury!"

"Acting under the protection of my star Saturn, the Soldier of the Silence, I am Sailor Saturn! And I will punish you in the name of Saturn!" Sailor Saturn drew her hand into the air, and the Silence Glaive glinted in the sunlight. "Silence Glaive...Surprise!" Cutting down and through the harpy she took aim at, the accompanying light cleaved a path through the attackers. 

"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!" The delicate strings of the winged harp sent out a roaring tide of ice, tearing into those that fell from above. 

Their mysterious friend was not doing so badly, her white fletched arrows seeming to be endless in her bow, flying one after another into the thick clouds of beating wings. With the repeated attacks of each of the women, the harpies were forced back a bit, Mercury, Saturn and the lioness woman in a triangle, back to back. 

"I don't think we can hold them back forever," Saturn called as she spun the Glaive in an arc over her head, letting the sharp edge bite into the wings of an attacker. 

Drawing back the bow again, the woman asked, "I take it you two are new?"

"Hai!" Came the two responses. 

"Then you don't know how to manipulate this place. Keep them off me a second!"

"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"

"Silence Glaive Surprise!"

The fresh blasts of water and power rolled into the circling harpies. Their rescuer dropped to all fours, her body growing sleek and golden once more as the form of a lioness took its shape. "Get on!"

As the attacks had blasted the harpies backward, Mercury and Saturn took the moment to leap onto the lioness's back, Saturn in front, the Glaive held tightly in one hand, her thin, otherarm wrapping around the fur of the lioness's neck. Mercury sent her harp back to its awaiting dimension, tucking her legs up close so they would not drag against the ground. 

The harpies swarmed above, their screeches and horrible sounding wings echoing in their shadows above, which once again began to plummet down. There was a shout of, "Hang on!" from the lioness, and they lurched smoothly forward, the muscles of the lioness bunching as she leapt directly into the enclosed circle of trees and brambles. Both of her riders flinched, closing their eyes and ducking their heads, but there was no impact. Instead, they ran rapidly, along no road, jumping from rock to tree to ground, their ride lithe and easily avoiding the obstacles of branch and upturned tree root . 

As they broke the tree line onto a rocky ledge, Saturn and Mercury let out a combined gasp as the lioness did not slow herself, leaping directly off and into the chasm below. Saturn clutched more tightly, and felt Mercury's grip tighten around her as their hair went flying straight upward, smacking their faces as the wind rushed past. There was no time to be afraid. Within moments, the cat had landed on her feet, and was standing solidly on the rock in the clearing they had just left. 

"We should be safe here," the lioness said as she looked over her shoulder at the confused senshi. 

"But we just left here," Mercury commented, as reluctant as Saturn to get off, in case of a return of the harpies. After a moment, she looked to the sky, which was completely clear, though still in the color of sunset. "They couldn't all have left that quickly."

There was the sound of laughter, which was very strange, considering it was lion-like and nearly a roar. "Get off," she said as she continued to laugh, shaking her head. "Come on, ride's over."

In a little disbelief, the two climbed off, eyes switching from the lioness to the sky, as though their attackers would return in a moment. 

"Newbies," the lioness chuckled as she reared back into her human form. Watching her, Mercury and Saturn saw that she was young, though a full adult. She was strong and lean from running, and wore a loose light blue tunic, and leather sandals which wrapped around her ankles neatly. Her face was strong, with high cheekbones, defined by eyes that remained catlike, even human. She brushed a lock of mahogany hair over her shoulder, tucking it back into a cloth wrap that bound it to the back of her head. "But I have to admit, it was great fighting with some women for once. You got to tell me...are there more that can fight like you two? Gods, it's great being the only hero remembered that was female, but I could sure use the company!"

The stranger looked happy, though questioning, smiling at the two younger girls, who just stood there in confusion. The woman blinked once, then sighed. "Look, you two are new. Don't worry about the harpies, we're as far off as we can get from them."

The senshi looked at the clearing. 

That caused the woman to snort. "Don't tell me you're that literal. Just because this place looks like that place doesn't mean they're the same place."

It took them a moment, but eventually there were nods as the words were absorbed and fitted into the mindset that was developing about this strange afterlife. "Arigatou," Saturn said after a moment, straightening her back as she felt some control over her confusion again. She bowed politely, and Mercury followed suit, smiling at their rescuer. The woman laughed, and held out a hand. Saturn stared, but Mercury clasped it, the grip firm on both ends. 

"You didn't answer my question...any more like you two? Like I said, I can use some company out here."

Mercury laughed a little, and Saturn touched the heart shaped pin on her bow, sending her power fluxing around her, and returning her to the form ofHotaru. A moment later, Mercury did the same, and answered the question. "There are several like us. But I think we'd like to know your name, if you don't mind?"

The woman tilted her head to one side, as if to consider the request. She shook her head then, as though teasing, and bowed elaborately. "Well, after introductions like you two gave those harpies, I guess I should do the same. I am Atalanta, only woman remembered as a hero from the age of Hellas. Raised by a she-bear, and the killer of the Calydonian Boar. Though I never told it I would punish it first," she winked, then looked at them expectantly. "And am I to always call you Sailor..." she frowned. "No, you didn't say Hermes and Chronos...ugh, these language things never work right...."

"Mercury and Saturn," Ami corrected her. "Language things?"

"Everyone here speaks their native tongue. Magic in the air translates it, best I can tell. I don't argue with that gravity thing. Why should I argue with this?" She shrugged at her own advice, then waited. "Your names?"

"Oh, gomen ne...I am Mizuno Ami, and this is Tomoe Hotaru."

Atalanta frowned a moment in consideration, a hand to her chin as she mused, then when Ami began to speak, waved a hand. "No, wait, I have this. I talked to some guy who called himself a samurai awhile ago. Ami," she pointed, "and Hotaru. Not Mizuno and Tomoe, right?"

"Hai."

"Good," Atalanta seemed very happy with herself, nodding firmly as the idea set. Then she stared at them. "You two are different, and I'm not talking magic." Her eyebrows drew into a taut line as she stared harder. Then her eyes flew wide open. "Persephone! You're not dead, are you?"

The two girls backed away a bit, unsure if this would be taken well. Their last encounter with a living pair of souls did not suggest they could tell the difference. Atalanta, however, was much sharper than Chuck and Brenda. 

"No," Hotaru agreed after a moment. "We are on a mission."

Atalanta took this in for a moment, then a wide smile broke out on her face. "Well, glad to know the first to make it in here were fellow females. Nice for company. Look, for all the length I've been here, I think it's Tereisas you will want to talk to."

"Tereisas?" Hotaru asked, then hesitated. "I know that name...."

"_The Odyssey_, Hotaru-chan. A blind prophet, if I remember correctly," then, to Atalanta, "Why him?"

Atalanta shrugged, turning to begin to walk down a path away from their clearing and the Yellow Brick Road. "If you're alive and my memories serve me well, then you will be looking for someone, or something. Someone to help you, advice or something, or searching for ambrosia or Lethe water. Right?"

"Hai..."

"If it's not Tereisas himself you look for, then he might be able to point you after it. Will that help?"

Ami and Hotaru exchanged a glance. There was no reason not to trust her. She had saved their lives. "Hai," Hotaru said in agreement, and began to follow Atalanta. "But I think we want to know why you are helping us."

Atalanta grinned, holding a finger to her lips and winking back at the trailing girls. "Let's just say that Susan B. Anthony and I had a good long talk about fifty years back, and I like to help out fellow heroines."

With that, the three of them headed to the home of the blind prophet, Atalanta leading the way. 

It had not taken the doctors very long to run their tests. Each of them had gone about their business with quiet efficiency, despite Dr. Mizuno's few yawns. She was sleepy, having been there nearly a full twenty-four hour shift. But the girl on this bed was one of her daughter's closest friends, and she would do anything for Ami, and thus for her friends. Her worn eyes had seen how concerned the boyfriend was, and the little girl who looked eerily like her daughter. When she and Dr. Yurei left, she saw how he immediately returned to the bedside, dragging back the chair they had moved. She shut the door so they could have their privacy, strange though it was for such a young girl to have such a serious relationship. 

The doctors gone, the cats came out from their hiding place under the small couch, peering up with their large eyes to the scene. Chibiusa came to stand beside her future father and said, "I'm still here," to which he smiled faintly and held her hand a moment, the other already holding Usagi's again. Some could suppose that the pink haired child's statement was selfish, self-centered. But she said it softly, and with the sad look in her cinnamon colored eyes, it was meant to be reassuring. If she was still there, then Usagi would be fine. At least well enough to have her in the future. It was a slender but strong thread of hope. 

"Usagi-chan has fought all kinds of things," that from Luna, who leapt up onto the bed, Artemis a beat behind her. Diana tried to leap up as well, but wasn't quite large enough yet. Chibiusa scurried around the bedside, picking her up and placing her on her shoulder, to which Diana settled herself in comfortably. Luna continued, "she won't let this end her. Don't worry."

Mamoru smiled a little, shaking his head. "She always fights. She may not like it, and may whine and complain, but she always fights. This time though...I can't even be there, much less help her."

"You are here," Artemis reminded him, settling down onto his haunches. "You got to her before anyone else. I'm sure she knows that."

"Diana," Chibiusa asked with a yawn, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand, "I don't remember anything about Mama being sick...do you?"

The kitten replied, "No."

There were some disappointed looks across the group. If someone remembered it, then maybe it was part of their destiny after all. 

A knock came at the door, and a head poked in at the same time. The cats froze, ready to leap back to the couch, even though it was too late. Fortunately, the head was the familiar blond of Haruka, who shut the door quietly behind her. "How's the odango?" She asked as she shed her uniform's jacket, tossing it onto the couch and unbuttoning the collar of the white shirt. Mamoru and Chibiusa watched her small transformation with a little surprise, Haruka shedding her masculinity before them. The effect completed as she ran a hand through her hair, ruffling it and making it fluffier, fuller, and more feminine. She pulled up the spare chair and turned it around, sitting backwards. Still the same old Haruka. 

Artemis replied to Haruka's question. "The same."

Haruka frowned, putting her chin on her arms, which rested on the back of her chair. "How you two holding up?" 

A shrug from Chibiusa, who moved her arms to hold Diana. She yawned again, rubbing sleep grit from her eyes. "Tired."

"You ready to go home?"

Chibiusa looked at Mamoru, and shook her head no. Then she went to the couch and pulled the small blanket from the side, taking the tiny head pillow and positioning it against the wooden armrest, for her head. "I'll sleep here," she announced, and closed her eyes. Within a minute, she was asleep. 

Haruka snorted and shook her head. "If anyone ever doubts that's Usagi's kid, just have them look at that. I've never seen anyone fall asleep that fast."

"Speaking of people holding up," Luna asked, looking at Haruka. "How are the other senshi?"

Haruka shrugged, trying to look casual. They had decided quickly not to tell Mamoru about the attempt to find Ami's ghost friend. The way he'd been acting, he'd likely charge off after them, and try to go himself. Losing not only one, but two of their future rulers was out of the question. When Michiru had calmed herself about Hotaru, she had made an uneasy comment. 

"Even if Usagi does not become Neo-Queen, that does not necessarily prevent Mamoru from becoming King. He holds the Golden Crystal, and if it was the source of the Earth power in the past, then it may still be in the future...." She had then buried her face in Haruka's shoulder, and had remained that way for several minutes. 

That had unnerved Haruka. Michiru had a point. They had always assumed that it was Usagi alone who caused the future to take the path it did. With her gone, the changes would be drastic. But still, the question of the Golden Crystal and its power remained. If it was equal, as it was rumored to be, as the Silver Imperium Crystal, then Crystal Tokyo couldstill be forged. Chibiusa's presence was the only indicator of a good outcome. 

To Luna's question, Haruka replied: "They're doing all right, I think. Minako and Makoto went to Mako's to get food for you and Small Lady. Mako decided hospital food wasn't good enough, and wanted to whip up some gourmet thing. Michie is at the gift shop. Too depressing in here, apparently. She's getting some flowers."

Mamoru picked up on Haruka's continued silence. "And what are the others doing, Haruka?" He was frowning, and looking at her. 

"They went to Rei's temple. To pray for good health."

Mamoru was staring at her, hard. Haruka stared right back. 

Eventually, Mamoru stood. "Both Pluto and Saturn went? They're trying something."

Even as he stood, the door opened, and Michiru walked in, her hands full of a vase of long stemmed red roses. "Mamoru, calm yourself." She held the roses out to him, and he watched her face from across the flowers. "We cannot risk both of you. And if they are successful, don't you think the first person she will want to see is her Mamo-chan?"

Mamoru looked away, then reluctantly accepted the vase, the string of a balloon drifting up into the ceiling. The balloon itself was a rabbit, brightly holding a sign that said 'Get Well Soon!' He sighed, and turned, setting it on the low table under and beside the television. "Arigatou, Michiru. They're very nice."

"I'm glad. A compliment from you about roses is like that of an expert," she said with a faint smile, teasing lightly. When Mamoru was forced to smile back, Michiru took a seat beside Chibiusa, then straightened the blanket over her. "She's asleep already? Unmistakably Usagi's child."

Luna shook her head, and Artemis looked between the couple. Diana actually giggled, "You two sound like Momma and Papa. Always saying the same things!"

"We do not!" Came the reply from Luna and Artemis at once, then they reddened. 

"Great minds, you two," Mamoru said, settling down on his chair again. 

"I said something like Haruka?" 

Haruka shook her head, hair falling into her eyes. "Don't worry about it, Michie. You missed the beginning of the conversation."

"I suppose I did," Michiru sighed, then looked at Mamoru. "Despite Haruka's talking too much," that earned her a dirty look from Haruka, but Michiru ignored it. "We are doing what we can. And to keep you safe as well."

Mamoru nodded thanks, and then there was a snore from Chibiusa, who murmured something that sounded like, "Helios," in her sleep, but they couldn't really know for sure. Then again, there was a big grin on her face when she mumbled it. Her observers smiled. 

If only Usagi were having such sweet dreams. 

"Ami-chan," Hotaru asked as they headed through the forest, Atalanta walking a few strides in front of them, "this Teresias...how will he help us? You said he was a prophet, but I didn't think such people would keep their visions after death."

Ami hesitated, mentally running though her Greek literature. "Persephone let him keep his powers. Some kind of special favor. Atalanta is talking as though this is true. For now we should follow her lead, I think."

Hotaru nodded and they continued on in silence, eventually breaking though the forest into a more rocky area. Time, with Atalanta at least, seemed to be running more normally. The rocks were hard underfoot, with only patches of grass between them. The hills rolled, and they saw no house or dwelling for Tereisas to be living in. Then, it seemed that Atalanta had no intention of taking them to a house. Suddenly, they broke into an amphitheater, in the Greek style of them, the stage low to the center and the rings of stadium seating rising up high into the slopes of the hills around it. In the middle of the stage a man stood, black robed and performing. 

"Sleep on, ho there! yet what need have I of sleepers? I tell you that I, thus slighted by you among other dead, am unceasingly reproached among the shades...."

The clear tenor of the man vibrated off the hills, and the three women leapt down the steps that ran though the bleachers. Quietly, they settled into the first row, and it became clear to Ami and Hotaru that the man was still blind, dead though he may be. 

Tereisas continued, "...and am left to wander in disgrace; and I tell you that I have to bear the greatest blame from them. Yet, though I have endured so dreadful a fate at the hands of those dearest to me, none of the gods is indignant in my behalf...."

His words grew quiet and hushed as he turned before them, the snowy hair and beard making him look ghostly and pale compared the darkness of his robes. Quietly he approached his audience, and though the eyes were sightless, they saw the three figures clearly. 

He finished, "For the mind in sleep is clear in its eyesight, though in the daytime the fate of mortals is hidden from their ken."

When he spoke no more of his soliloquy, they applauded, the three sets of hands small in the massive theater. Then, Atalanta laughed, "Tereisas, you missed your calling in life."

The old man smiled, thin lips drawn tightly. "Ah, but then I would be unable to help your friends, Atalanta. They search for one to aid them," then his focus switched to the senshi,"do you not?" 

"Hai," they replied in unison, Hotaru standing. "Can you help us?"

He turned his back to them, and lifted his voice to the empty theater again. "Go, speedily enter your caves below the earth; keep off all that is hurtful from the land, and send us all that is gainful to the city and leading to victory." He paused, and then Ami recognized the words of the play. 

"Aeschylus. The _Eurmenides_."

"Very good, young scholar. Too few children know of the intricate tales of old. Strange, since they still crave the magic tales, yet forget their origins. Do you also know the tale of the Eurmenides?"

A little taken aback, Ami regrouped, explaining, "They were once the Furies, punishers for wrongs and guilt. Orestes killed his mother, out of proper vengeance right for killing his father. They sought to punish him for his crime. Orestes went to Apollo, and then both to Athena."

"And they became the Eurmenides, the Kindly Ones. Protectors, instead, setting up a system of justice and trial by jury. You come searching here for one to help you."

"Hai," Hotaru replied, coming to stand on the stage with Tereisas. "She may have been my sister...we want to find her, to have her help our Princess. Please...we came to the Underworld to find her. We would appreciate your help."

To that, the blind prophet chuckled lightly, a thin, speckled hand waving lightly at the sunlit sky. "Underworld. And what makes you think this is the land of the dead?"

That caused Hotaru to take a step back, and Ami to stand. "Nani? But this has to be...Pluto's key!" Ami drew out her part of the split timekey. "Atalanta? The harpies...." 

Atalanta shrugged and yawned. "I never said this was the Underworld."

"But it must be! Setsuna-mama wouldn't send us to the wrong place!"

To the confusion of the girls, Tereisas sighed, coming to set his still elderly body on the lowest step of the tiers. "I also never said this wasn't."

That only confused them more, and Ami came to stand with Hotaru, the closeness to a familiar and understood person comforting. "Tereisas-san," Ami began carefully. "We would appreciate it if you explained this to us."

The old man and young woman glanced at each other, then Atalanta shrugged again, crossing her legs at the ankles and stretching out. Teresias only looked at the empty stage before them. 

"All the world is a stage. All the worlds are a stage. Your key takes you to many places, many worlds, each their own entity. All this, no more than a stage. No more than a waking dream. Nothing more. Nothing less. The stage is a fascinating thing, is it not? Worlds created, worlds destroyed. Stories pass from different eras upon it. One day Rome. One day Hellas. The next Verona, Hong Kong, Harlem. This is a dream. Nothing more, nothing less. The actors upon the stage create the setting. The dreamer dreams the world around them. Is that not what you are?"

"A waking dream...." Ami repeated softly, a hand placed to her mouth as she considered carefully. "And if the dreamer, then, knows they are awake...."

Hotaru's eyes widened as she caught Ami's train of thought. "Then the dreamer can manipulate the dream."

Cold purple eyes locked with watery blue, each wide as they looked again around the world they were in. The ability of the people there to change the world around them, in the way Atalanta changed from lion to woman to lion again. The way one place could be the same but not. The sudden shifting between places. All things that were traitsof a dream. And they were awake, and aware. It was Hotaru who hesitantly placed a finger in the air before her, and drew a fine black line, that hung there midair. Then she used her palm to erase it, the air a strange chalkboard. "It works," she stated in amazement, blinking. Then she looked at the empty stage. "I saw a picture of the Globe Theater in England...." a wave of her hand, and the amphitheater shifted and changed, becoming wooden and built straight up, the sunset sky clear though the empty top. Now rather than the stone stage, they stood on the dirt before the raised wooden one, curtains of red cloth drawn. Ripples faded away, and it left Ami and Hotaru alone in the Globe, where Shakespeare's plays were performed hundreds of years ago. 

"They're gone," Ami commented as she looked around the stands, empty and shadowed, stacked one atop the next, the space between the arches revealing only empty seats. 

"We don't need them anymore. Maybe they know that."

Ami couldn't help but tilt her head back and spread her arms, turning round in dizzying circles, looking up at the Globe's emptiness. She heard hollow steps on wood, and stopped to see Hotaru on the stage. "Round about the cauldron go, in the poisoned entrails throw...toad that under cold stone, days and nights hath thirty-one. Sweltered venom sleeping got, boil thou first in the charmed pot...." Hotaru chanted, then grinned down at Ami, who was shaking her head. 

"There were only three witches in the Scottish Play, Hotaru-chan, not five."

"Scottish Play?"

"Ah, you can't say the name of that one in a theater. It brings bad luck."

"Oh," Hotaru turned and began to inspect the floor for a trapdoor. "And here Hecate would come through to speak to her witches. Double, double, toil and trouble...."

"Fire burn, and cauldron bubble...." Ami finished as she joined Hotaru on stage. "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes." 

"We shouldn't stay here. We do need to find my sister."

Ami glanced at Hotaru. The younger girl had taken very quickly to the idea of having a sister. Thinking about it, she supposed she understood why. Raised alone, with Kaolinite as a 'stepmother' and the Witches 5 never too far away, it would have helped her so much. Hotaru had loved her father. Haruka and Michiru, as well as Setsuna, serving as a surrogate family, gave her a still strange, but far more stable family life. Well, as stable a life as a senshi could have, she supposed. But still, the other Outers were not blood relatives, and that was the way Hotaru was seeing Kami. Or at least, something much like it. Looking at Hotaru, she remembered Kami's appearance. Thinking about it, Kami did resemble Hotaru a bit. The same purple eyes, Kami's far paler, but still lavender. The hair color was the same, though Kami's wavy, and closer to the length Mistress 9 had worn. The same thinness. It was possible. And if Setsuna was right about Kami....

"We do need to go. But how to get to her still?"

Hotaru considered this a bit, looking down at the empty ground level. "If they can leave when we change the world around us, then why can't we go to a world that Kami created?"

"Makes sense," Ami agreed, thinking. 

"If it were me..." Hotaru began reluctantly, pausing to wait for Ami to acknowledge her idea. When Ami waited expectantly, she continued, "If it were me, I would go to where I died. If she committed suicide, and we have to assume that she _chose_ not to be reborn, then she would stay with whatever caused her so much pain in life. That's what I would do."

Ami took a breath. This was Hotaru's realm. And it fit with where Kami had said good-bye to her after revealing the way she died. She remembered how Kami had seen it, strangely bright and surreal, too much brightness. "Well, let's see if I can do what you did."

"It's so easy, Ami. Like thinking. I can't even explain it."

Ami took a determined breath, then held a hand out, fingers splayed. Slowly, the Globe rippled, as though a _sakura_ petal had fallen into a still pool of water. The round waves were small, but spread slowly, until the whole of their sight was filled with the tiny rolling waves. The dim sunset light faded into nothingness as the whiteness of Kami's memories of life filled in. Ami mirrored them, the way an illusion mirrors reality. 

Then, sitting beneath a blooming mountain cherry, a dark robed figure sat before them.

Okay! One more chapter up! Liking it?? I hope so...so please remember to review! I had so much fun writing in Atalanta's scenes. 

Ja!

-Queen


	5. Tapestry of Affinity

The Weaver of Dreams

-my dream is to live happily ever after, in a pretty house with flowers, and the love of my life and our child.

What's your dream? If I asked you, I wonder if you would answer me like that.

-Hotaru, _Sailor Moon SuperS 3_

Chapter 4- A Tapestry of Affinity

Before Hotaru could think to move forward, Ami grabbed her wrist, keeping her from uncharacteristically acting out of hand. The scene was very like the one Kami had left her with. The sunset was gone, replaced with the surreal brightness of Kami's day. Though it worried Ami to see that she sat under the tree, the only spot of darkness within the otherwise sparkling sight. The river was still there, blue and flowing, glittering with the light. And it merged with the sound of Kami's mournful voice, playing on her _koto_. The words were familiar, but unfamiliar, the same unrecognized song Kami had played the evening the fireflies had swarmed though the shoji door, sending her back to the waking world.

"Is that her?" Hotaru asked softly. 

"Hai. Come on. We don't want to rush over. I...I just hope she remembers me...we still don't know everything for sure...."

Hotaru did not share Ami's uncertainty to their reception, but was calm regardless, and they watched from outside the shadow's circle as Kami's fingers flickered over the silken strings, the picks attached to each finger dancing. She showed no notice of them, oblivious to her audience, until the song ended after some length of time. 

"Kami-chan?" Ami asked into the quiet. She saw the back of the young woman stiffen, then a muffled cry. 

"Kanashi...?" The head swiveled around, and Kami's mouth fell open, clear eyes disbelieving. She moved as though to scramble backward, stopping, then shaking her head in shock. "No...." Her face suddenly twisted in fury. "Get away from me! How many times do I have to cast you out? Away!" Kami reacted more quickly than Ami could, her hands going up, parallel to each other, fingers wide, and tiny webs of lavender and silver light spidering their way between each fingertip. And as the webbing grew thicker, it shot forward in a ray of silver, the intention of the bolt clear: the destruction of whatever Kami thought Ami and Hotaru were. 

"Silence Wall!" 

The light blasted into the wall, screaming as each power connected. The instant of the attack and counter gave Ami enough time to gather her wits, and saw Hotaru with her hands in a mirrored position to Kami's, the strange nebulous power of her attack petaling out and absorbing Kami's, the powers merging. But the most remarkable thing was, it was Hotaru who created it. Not Sailor Saturn. 

The attack lasted only an instant, Kami climbing to her feet as she held her hands before her. Her eyes were narrowed and dangerous, a look very unlike what Ami had seen of her before. "Kami, my name is Hotaru!" the girl called to the older one, as Kami watched suspiciously from within her shadow's circle. "I know you don't know me, but...I'm your sister. Please, believe me."

Kami's eyes flickered between the two senshi, and she backed away a step. "Lies. You keep coming. Demons of the Underworld. Harpies!" Kami spat. "Lies. I have no sister," her eyes switched to Ami. "And you. How dare you? What new low is this? Haunted by friends made even after I'm dead? Get out! Out!" Kami spun her hands before her, and a delicate weaving of silken threads formed, slowly gaining in brightness. "You will haunt me no more!"

"Mercury Crystal Power! Make-up!" 

A moment later, Hotaru followed Ami's lead, hoping she knew what she was doing. "Saturn Crystal Power! Make-up!"

Kami's attack faltered as she stood watching the transformations, confused. The brightness in her webbing dulled, then brightened again as she prepared herself, warily. The two girls who stood there in the costumes...those strange costumes, which she had somehow before seen. 

"Kami-chan," Mercury pleaded, her white gloved palms up and out, the sign of peace. "It's Kanashimi-chan. Really. Remember? You told me once that you saw people who fought with the darkness, as though it were tangible and solid, not a thing at all for priests to banish. Are we who you saw?" Then, more demanding,"Kami-chan, _are we who you saw?_"

Kami shook her head, backing away slightly. Her eyes switched from Mercury to Saturn, then Mercury again. "Not you..." Then they settled on Saturn. "You....into a dark mirror. With a girl. Younger. Brightly colored."

"Chibiusa-chan," Saturn said, her Glaive still held defensively before her. "We fought nightmares against the Queen of the Nether Moon."

"Nightmares. And you still stand?" then she determined, "No. Only the dead come here."

"No!" Saturn argued as Kami brought her hands up again. "Please. Let me show you who you are. Who I am, and why we're here. For the Princess, and the future."

Kami flinched, hesitating. She considered this carefully. There was something different about these two, she could feel that. But centuries of holding harpies of the mind and soul at bay had made her wary and cautious of what she saw outside her shadowed circle. Too many times family, friends and loved ones had come, begging her to leave her isolation. Harpies, all of them, Furies that came to punish her for her so-called sins on Earth. 

"Kami-chan," the one in blue called to her. "The most dangerous demons are the ones we create for ourselves."

Kami felt her heart break. In the end, that had been what had caused her death, in life. Her own demons, catching up with her. "Show me," she commanded the Saturn one, softly. 

The Solider of Silence did not hesitate. She moved forward, piercing the line of the shadowed circle, ignoring Kami's shocked gasp. No one, never, had walked though that. Even now, the one who called out to the planet Mercury was held back at the barrier, the wall of shadow blazing up in practiced magic. "Death...."

Kami staggered back as the Glaive was hefted high over the younger girl's head, and she flung her arms up in the instinct of fright. The shining arc of the Glaive dropped down, and she felt it crush into her body, as she heard the word whisper from the girl's lips. "Reborn." 

Such a blaze of blackness Kami had never seen. Then, tiny and indistinct, she saw light. The light of fireflies, and in the stories of her people, the souls of the dead, dancing around her in dizzying spirals. Kami twisted as she looked around, and saw the glimmer of wandering stars around the blazing circle of the sun. "Amaterasu-sama?" Kami floated, staring at the golden sun, calling it by the name of the sun goddess. The layers of her robes floated around her loosely, and she had once called it _Chrysanthemum Rain, _the style not unlike that of her mother's, in her last life. She felt so cold, in the velvet vacuum of space. Shivering, she gathered the folds closely around her. 

"Don't be afraid," she heard, and felt a smaller hand in her own. Saturn was now beside her, floating more comfortably than she. Kami stared at the dress the girl now wore. It was such a deep shade of purple that it was more black. High gloves came up over her arms, and a band of ribbon tied around the girl's neck. "I'm Hotaru."

"Kami?" she stammered as her own name. It was a name she liked, now. When Hotaru smiled at her, Kami found herself smiling back, twin gentle smiles. 

"Let me show you, who you should have been."

The blackness dissolved into the columned elegance of the Silver Millennium, beautiful lavender roses blooming in small bushes around them. They stood in a garden, and above them swirled the faint colors of aural magic. The way that the moon of Saturn, Titan, had been terraformed, made habitable by human life. Under the protection of the magic of the planet's king and queen, they were safe. "Where are we?"

"This is our home. Long ago, in what is now only a legend." The two stood side by side, and looked up and out. "I don't remember it very well. Fragments, like in a dream. Sometimes, Setsuna-mama tells me things, and I remember more. This was what I remember of our home. Titan Castle of Saturn, the planet of death."

"Our home?"

Hotaru folded her hands before her, sadness crossing her face. "Once upon a time," she echoed the words, trying to sound out them as well as Setsuna had, so much earlier in the hospital's cafeteria. So far away, that seemed now. "the queen of Saturn was to have a child. But those times were dangerous yet, the protections of magic that warded this Castle not so strong. This child was to have the power of death. And this Glaive." Holding her hands up, the Silence Glaive formed from a line of mist, dropping into Princess Hotaru's hands. "I do not know what happened. Setsuna-mama says only that the child was stillborn. That child, I believe, was you."

Wide eyed, Kami thought: _Impossible. _

Kami watched Hotaru, and the way she tilted her head like an uncertain bird at her. Then the younger girl continued. "Later, I was born. And the power of death became my fate. My _karma._ Yet the realm of sleep, the sibling of death, was left to be owner less. I believe, that since death was given to me...when you were reborn, the powers that still lay unclaimed by the royalty of Saturn became yours, though by then unneeded, as that era had ended. It makes me wonder. How long, exactly, have you been able to slip in and out of dreams?"

_Sister?_

Kami nearly had tears in her eyes as she looked around her. It was so empty. Centuries of stony isolation, and now she was being told she was not only royalty of a planet...whatever such a thing was...but had a family? Her reason struggled with this relevation. 

_Yet, at the same time, it feels so...familiar._

__"Time does not have meaning, in the realm of the dead."

"What, then, have you seen?"

_Images, only. I do not know what they are...but they are good things. This girl, in her strange clothes who fights with nightmares. Kanashimi-chan. Was that truly her, who danced in the water, as this one in the light? I see...those who fight for the beauty of the future. And the images of what they attain. A crystal city. A crystal palace, rising so high in the sky. Kanashimi-chan, in a dress of the same odd style as the one this Hotaru wears. So lucky, these. Living above the clouds. Living my dream. This can't be a joke. Not even a Fury is that cruel. Telling me I would have been part of something so grand? _

__For the first time in centuries, Kami felt a little hope in her, though afraid it would be crushed. And also, a little bit of trust. 

"You've seen it, haven't you?" Hotaru prodded, eyes wide and looking up into Kami's. Kami made no movement, but Hotaru saw it in her eyes. She pulled back, a smile breaking onto her delicate face. "Crystal Tokyo."

"Crystal...where?" Kami laughed at the word, and Hotaru scooped Kami's hands into her own. "There was no city called that in the day I last lived."

"Tokyo." Hotaru told her. "If you have seen that place, then you know the importance of its being protected. And let me show you what threatens it now."

The courtyard of the castle became a place very different, sterile and cramped slightly, with the beeping of a computer monitor. It was dark in the room, save the light from the computer screens, and empty but for the still figure on the bed. "I know her," Kami stated as she looked at the pale figure of Usagi. She lay there with the covers up high over her chest, the golden hair still loose and falling over the pillow.

"She will be the Queen of that city."

Kami tilted her head at the girl, her thick hair falling in a curtain as she leaned forward to see. "There is something that she fights, in her soul."

"You know what it is?" 

Kami turned quickly, since Hotaru's voice suddenly became sharp and hopeful. Urgent. 

_She claims I would have been her older sister. I...I believe her. How odd. She needs my help. This one...a Fury. Yes, that is what is in her. Not a harpy, an easy thing to banish. That takes only power and some strength. This is a Fury. How long it took me to fight that kind of creature off, ne? That was when the visions began, when I defeated it. Of the living world. And the visions grow stronger with time. She is asking me to protect her future Queen. I am not beholden to such a person. But...neither was I obligated to help Kanashimi-chan. This girl holds no sorrow in her heart. Then where does the Fury come from? Ah....I think I know. And for you, my would-be sister, and Kanashimi-chan, my first true friend. For you two, I will help her. For your sake. _

__"I will help her."

The dreamland Hotaru summoned faded away, as did the shadow created by the autumn _sakura_. Mercury watched this happen, Sailor Saturn complete her blow into the body of the dead woman, the word "Reborn" clear and terrifying, since Mercury knew what would follow it. But the final word of Saturn's strike never came, and Kami did not crumple under the weight of the Glaive's sharp edge. Instead, there was light. So much light, in fact, that Sailor Mercury staggered back, a hand over her eyes to block it out. Peering through the slashes of sight between her fingers, Mercury saw the silhouette of Saturn before the blinding brilliance. Her fellow senshi was backing away, also with an arm up to keep the light from blinding her. When the purple clad figure came close enough, Mercury grabbed her, and they watched a startling transformation under the _sakura _tree. 

First a single thread. Then another and another, lavender and shining, the thread spun by the Fates. Each struck the ground, the air, piercing it as the_ sakura_ from above began a slow waltz into the air around Kami. Her eyes closed to the brightness, a tiny, delicate image appeared on her forehead. And when her lavender eyes opened, the shining symbol lit, the shape of three teardrops chasing one another in an endless circle. And from there, an all together too familiar uniform took shape from the threads, lavender on the skirt and collar, high, heeled boots that came to a point just over her knees, in the same color, though unlined in the white in the way Mercury and Pluto's were. Behind her, a long, silvery grey bow trailed, and the same over her chest, the tiny, lavender pin holding it together. The teardrop symbol on her forehead was covered by the lavender stone on the tiara as the transformation became complete. 

"Unite your keys," came Kami's voice. "do it now, and return. Your friends are worried about you."

And with that, the Soldier of Beautiful Dreams stepped into the light, which swallowed her and left the other two alone in the clearing. 

"Ami-chan! Ami-chan!" Rei pounded down on Ami's still chest, afraid that the breath she had pushed into her friends' lungs would soon run out. She spared a look at Setsuna, who was doing her own CPR over Hotaru, who was just as silent as the death she represented. "Wake up! Come on!" Cursing the stupidity of their attempt, Rei prepared to scream for Grandpa to call the ambulance. It had happened so quickly, neither Rei nor Pluto having enough time to scream. Pluto had been circled by the violet water ribbons of her henshin even as she rolled Hotaru onto her back, applying the steps that could save her life. The instant Pluto had set the timekey into the outstretched hands of Ami and Hotaru, there had been a light like no other, and both had jerked violently, collapsing onto the tatami mat, not breathing. 

Rei began to scream, "Grand-"

Then sound of a deep, choking breath cut her off, and she saw Ami spasm as she rolled to the side, choking. In Rei's arms, Ami gasped, "Hotaru-chan?" 

Moments later, Setsuna was successful in her attempts, and Hotaru coughed, arms weakly grasping, and Setsuna grabbed her, sitting her upright and cradling her daughter. "Setsuna-mama? Oh!" And as she gained consciousness, Hotaru hugged Setsuna. 

Ami suddenly felt herself bogged down by her fire element friend. "Rei-chan? Nan ja? What are you doing?"

"You're alive, you baka!" Rei shouted in relief. "We already have Usagi-chan in the hospital, we didn't need the two of you there, too!" Rei began to shake Ami, scolding her. "Baka! Baka! Baka! And you are _not_ going to convince us that you can try that again!"

"Rei-chan! Calm down!" Ami managed to laugh, still gasping through Rei's shaking, "Rei-chan! We did it! It worked!"

"...you are never going to.... What? What worked?"

"We got to Kami! Hotaru!"

Leaning around Setsuna, Hotaru was smiling. "Setsuna-mama? We need to get to the hospital." She looked up into the Guardian of Time's garnet eyes. "My sister has had her Awakening at last."

"I'm beginning to feel a bit like Marley," Fury commented idly as she sat upon the low wall in the balcony of the palace. "Or maybe more like one of the Ghosts. First, Past, then Present...well, fairly close to present, and now...." she waved a hand at the scene below them, the throne room of the Crystal Palace, in Crystal Tokyo. Arrayed before the throne were three senshi, Mercury, Mars and Venus, each in their fuku, Mercury with her computer out. Neo-Queen Serenity sat on her throne, and was fidgeting.

Usagi had been returned to her nightgown and bare feet, standing beside and behind Fury with wide eyes. "Where is Mako-chan?"

"You'll see. Watch."

"Where is Jupiter?" The Neo-Queen echoed Usagi's words a moment later, eerily similar. "I ordered her here. This is an emergency. Where is she?"

Mercury shifted uneasily, as the other two looked at her for an answer. "Jupiter's daughter apparently is very close to her mother, and doesn't want her to leave....she's having problems leaving her behind...."

Serenity stood, the white folds of her gown falling around her in a waterfall. So much grace Usagi had gained in her years of aging. "The Black Moon's ships have been charted inside the barrier of Uranus. Jupiter is needed here, now!"

"Serenity...."

"We have a people to protect," the Queen continued, frowning at the raven haired one's protest. "Her duty is here...."

"Well, you've focused yourself a lot in the future," Fury commented as she watched the scene below unfold. "Wow, actually wanting to fight...oh. Wait. Silly me. You're not in your fuku, are you? That's right, you can't fight anymore. You're a Queen. You can only be protected."

Usagi knew how to respond to that, remembering quite clearly what she had been told by the future King Endymion in the future. And if what she was seeing was only in her mind, it hadn't happened yet. "The Neo-Queen took a stand against Wiseman. I took a stand against Wiseman. You're lying, now."

Fury giggled a little, then let a leg trail off over the wall. "Lying? Hmph. Yes, I suppose you did take a stand against Wiseman, didn't you. Touché! Of course, your friends didn't play much part in that at all, did they? Just good old Neo-Queen Serenity, defender of the universe, destroyer of families."

It was then that Jupiter came in, running. "Gomen ne, minna...."

Usagi turned away as she heard her future self begin to tell Jupiter she was out of line. Too many times had she been late herself, late for senshi meetings, study sessions, school in general. 

"There are many sides, to being a Queen, ne?" 

Usagi looked around, and suddenly found herself far away from Fury. Instead, she was once again in the space of mirrors, the image of the palace and the tardy Jupiter just before her, still being played out. Yet as she watched, mist swirled before it, and shrouded the events in the future. A beautiful young woman she did not know stood beside her, in a sailor fuku, which made Usagi stare. The eyes of the woman were sad, lavender and downcast, her hands folded delicately though she did not sit. 

"Forgive me, Usagi-sama, I did not mean to intrude on your thoughts. It is very strange, being in your mind. You are much happier than I, or Kanashimi-chan."

Looking at the girl, Usagi could only ask, "Who are you?"

_Who am I? I don't really know. I had a name once, then was given another by Kanashimi-chan. Now it seems a new title has come to me. Sister. And now...senshi. But these are just labels, things to call a person, ne? _

__Instead of replying, Kami reached out with a hand, and placed it against the still surface of the dream mirror before them, still looking at the scene of Neo-Queen Serenity and her four guardian soldiers. Where her fingers met glass, it rippled, and then they were once again within the dream, though now a far different room, and with much younger Sailor Senshi. 

"Do you know the nature, of a Fury, Usagi-sama?" Kami asked as Usagi began to recognize the scene. Hair also unbound, a memory of Usagi's past lay before them. This Usagi sat on the floor, tears rolling down her face as she fumbled with the extreme lengths of her hair. It was growing rapidly. Always long, now it was reaching the floor. "Do you know their purpose?"

Looking at the strange senshi beside her, Usagi felt her body grow heavy, as though someone had placed a weight on her shoulders. "No, gomen...." Then she returned tolooking at herself, and felt so cold as she saw herself sink to the floor, the wide skirt pooling around her knees.

"Furies look for the darkness in one's heart, and use the truth to make it grow. They show half truths, nothing more." Kami shuddered, remembering the Furies that had come to her, whispering in her mind. She had believed them. No, she would not let them get to this princess. "You remember this?"

"Hai," Usagi replied immediately. It was a scene she could never forget. It was just after the battle at Tokyo Tower, her Mamo-chan taken by the Dark Kingdom, and her discovery that she was the Moon Princess. How long her hair had grown in so short a time. There was a knock at the door. 

"Minna?" Usagi heard herself say as Rei and Ami pushed their heads through the doorway, Makoto and Minako a step behind. Seeing their friend on the floor, tangled up in now extremely long hair, they stared, then exclaimed,

"Usagi-chan? Your hair!" 

"It just kept growing...."

The four other senshi immediately huddled around, Minako beginning to fix it, pinning it up into the odango that they all knew was Usagi's trademark. "How about one more turn around the bun?" She asked as she did it, a pin sticking out of her mouth. Usagi couldn't help but smile at herself and her friends, as Makoto took a handmirror off her dresser, and held it up for Usagi to see Minako's handiwork. 

Luna had entered the room as well, and had settled herself next to Usagi. "Where's the Crystal? Are you keeping it safe?"

The Usagi who stood beside Kami giggled. "Leave it to Luna to always be serious," then she frowned and looked at the floor. "Beryl had Tuxedo Kamen...I couldn't do anything...."

"Look at yourself, Usagi-sama. Look at your friends. Do you see them blame you for failure? Do you see them hate you or be envious of you? This is your own memory. Look at yourself, and do not see the half, but the whole."

Usagi turned her blue eyes on the scene again, and saw herself stand, hair now correct in its style. "Where is he now?" She saw her reflection say, eyes distant and eerie as the room grew cold. "We have to save him! If we don't, his body will melt, and...and....no!" 

Minako was the one who grabbed her, though all four of her friends had come to stand closer, physically supporting her as they did with her mind. "Princess! Snap out of it!" Minako was shaking her, face worried, as were they all. "We're with you! We're here to help you. We'll help you save him. So...please. Don't cry. Cheer up...okay?" 

Usagi looked into the eyes of her friends, each worried face circling her, then down at Luna, who sat at her feet, eyes turned up to see her. 

"They would go beyond the ends of the Earth for you, Usagi-sama. As you would for them. They already have," Kami said softly, looking at her hands, encased in the long white gloves. She turned them over, the backs of her hands, then the palms, looking at them. "They already have."

Kami felt Usagi's eyes fall on her, and she knew Usagi could see the sadness on her face. _She sees into people's hearts too easily. If I am not careful, she will see into mine. The Fury is as strong as the one it inhabits. I must not become distracted. _

__And so Kami reached out and pulled the visions around her in a cloak, wrapping them up in memory, and returning them to the black hall of mirrors. "See how much you are loved, Usagi-sama. It is always good to know you have dreams, and that there are people who love you. Look, and see your family."

With these words, Kami reached into the air, and though there were many mirrors about them, more filled the spaces, small and large, some intricate, some simple, each reflecting an image of people Usagi knew, hovering in her vision. Luna, leaping onto her bed the day she was given her brooch. Sailor Mercury's startled face to learn she was a senshi. Rei-chan and herself, heads pressed close together, tongues sticking out as they argued. Her mother and father, Shingo, at dinner, a cake being produced by Ikuko, freshly frosted. Mako-chan dodging flying bits of food as Usagi jammed the latest culinary creation into her face. Sailor Venus blasting a youma from behind Sailor Moon's back. Haruka and Michiru, shaking their heads in despair as Usagi tried to play violin, Hotaru's pleased face to have a visitor. Pluto appeared, her body crumpled, torn from having to stop time, a desperate act to prevent the destruction of them all. 

Her Mamoru, getting whacked in the face with a bad test paper. Her Mamo-chan, coming to get her to help save Mako-chan, the night she discovered she was Jupiter. Her Tuxedo Kamen, coming to place himself before Kunzite's blast, meant for her. Her future husband, leaning in for a kiss, suddenly interrupted by a pink-haired terror, landing on Usagi's head. 

Everywhere Usagi spun, another image filled her vision, some happy, some sad, all filled with memory, with pain and happiness. In the empty space filled with dreams, the Rabbit of the Moon turned, her gown floating around her, arms wide as she smiled at the bitter and sweet memories of her mind. "Two sides, to every story, ne, Usagi-sama?"

"Would we have been better off, weaver of dreams, without the lives we lived in the past?" Usagi asked Kami, hoping the older girl would have an answer. "Would it have been better if we never remembered it at all?"

"That's a question you must answer yourself. You would have had a normal life, hai. But would you have such people around you? Such remarkable people, as family and friends?"

As Usagi began to reply, they were interrupted. "Just who the hell do you think you are?" Out of one of the dream mirrors, Fury broke through, coming into their conversation with all the finesse of a wrecking ball. Fury took in the appearance of the stranger, and stared wide eyed. Then she burst into hysterical laughter. "Not another god-damned senshi! How many of you are there? And since I don't know you, neither does she. Care to introduce yourself? I know how much you all love speeches."

Kami moved closer to Usagi, who took a nervous step away from her reflective twin. Kami did not know what to say, but only looked at the Fury with a face of pity. Usagi, though, looked to the mirrors. The nearest one showed the image of herself, looking up into Mamoru's eyes, her hands in his. The other senshi were there, and she remembered telling Mamoru that there was a star in their hearts, and they would know the star is shining when they felt that heat. Deep within, Usagi felt the warmth, glowing still, and she looked at Fury. "She is the Soldier of Dreams," Usagi told Fury, then glanced at Kami. "Aren't you?"

_The Soldier of Dreams...._

__The thoughts were clear on Kami's face, though she did not give them words. Never one to be silent, Usagi took a step forward, as though to place herself between Kami and Fury. "She is...is Sailor Dreamweaver."

_Sailor Dreamweaver...._

"Oh, really. How convenient for you to have someone to protect you, even in your head." Fury didn't seem very impressed by Usagi's stance, only looking archly around the floating mirrors. "Nice memories, aren't they?"

"Sailor Dreamweaver?" Usagi asked, trying not to listen to Fury. She looked hopefully at Kami, who was watching Fury's idle destruction of the mirrors. Each memory she came to, she touched, and the mirror rippled, then shattered, the sounds of falling glass crackling around them. "How do I stop her?"

"I'm only a guide. You have to banish the nightmare you created yourself."

"But I have no powers here...I can't henshin...."

_There are always powers. There are always choices to be made. I won't let you make my mistake, Usagi-sama. This is a mind, your mind, and only your own fears prevent you from becoming the powerful girl you are. How, though, for me to help you? I know nothing of battle. I lost the battle to my Fury in life. And in death, my Fury left when I faced her at last. You wish to fight, so, then, does she. A weapon, then. You need a weapon. But what? There is no weapon that I hold. Or...maybe I can summon a weapon for myself. Hotaru-chan carried a weapon. The only weapon I every held in my hands was not so different than that. An elegant weapon, used to defend and protect. To protect dreams. Then...a naginata. As samurai, and woman, that is my weapon of choice. Come to my hand!_

__The Weaver of Dreams reached out with one hand, and a small lavender ribbon of light blossomed from her palm, stretching out to the full length of Kami's height, then more as a blade formed, single edged and made of magic, the shaft ebony and scrolled in delicate silver _sakura_ petals. It was an elegant weapon, deceptively delicate, and even more illusionary in the hands of its new mistress. 

The formation of the weapon was enough to cause Fury to pause in her destruction, smiling faintly. 

"Usagi-sama," Kami told Usagi, holding the naginata open to be taken. "You must fight her. Banish the darkness in your heart. It is the nature of fear, to be conquered."

Lightly, Usagi lifted the black shafted spear out of her hands, the grip awkward in her own hands, though it was so comfortable in Kami's. Fury, then, was heard to laugh. "Sure, Usagi-chan. Take the pretty weapon. Kill me with it. Go ahead. Do you really think you're strong enough to fight yourself?" Fury's arms were spread wide, welcoming, as she tilted her head back.

The weapon trembled in Usagi's hands, but then she heard whispers in her mind, and out of the corner of her eye, saw Dreamweaver with her eyes closed in concentration. The words were from familiar voices. 

"I'm still here."__

__"Usagi-chan has fought all kinds of things, she won't let this end her. Don't worry."

"She always fights. She may not like it, and may whine and complain, but she always fights. This time though...I can't even be there, much less help her."

"How's the odango? ....If anyone ever doubts that's Usagi's kid, just have them look at that. I've never seen anyone fall asleep that fast."

"We are doing what we can...."

_Hear the words of your friends, Usagi-sama, and take strength from them...._

There was a pause as Usagi listened, hearing first Chibiusa, then Luna, Mamoru, Haruka, and Michiru. 

Her grip tightened as she gripped the naginata, twisting as she drew strength from it. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, then, slowly, opened them, filled with determination. "I am the pretty sailor suited soldier of Love and Justice, Sailor Moon! And in the name of the Moon...."

Mamoru became aware that something had changed. 

His head lifted from where it was resting against the metal bar on the side of Usagi's bed, tilted up slightly. Looking around the room, he tried to discover what the source of the change was, but couldn't quite figure it out. Luna and Artemis were curled up beside one another on the foot of the bed, quietly waiting. Haruka was still glumly slumped over the back of her seat, arms folded and her chin resting on them. Chibiusa was still lying down on the couch, hugging Diana, and Michiru had found a copy of last month's _Vanity Fair_, and was idly flipping the pages, the rustling the only sound in the room, other than the hum of the computers. 

Shaking his head, he thought it must be his imagination, until he went to change positions on his own chair, and in order to do so, he needed to release Usagi's hand. That was when he realized it. Usagi was gripping his hand. 

She didn't have the strength before. 

"Usa?" At the soft word, Haruka and Michiru glanced up and over, seeing Mamoru reach out to touch Usagi's sleeping face. "Usako?"

As his fingers brushed a stray lock of blond hair from her closed eyelids, he saw her eyebrows pull together, her lashes fluttering, still shut. "Usako! Come on...fight it...we're here...."

The tremors across Usagi's face increased, and now Haruka and Michiru were on their feet, the cats leaping up, and with the sudden motion and change of atmosphere in the room, Chibiusa's red eyes cracked open. "Nan ja...?" She mumbled as she turned to see the older senshi and Mamoru concentrating on Usagi so suddenly. She blinked, and after a moment, saw it as well. 

Usagi was waking up.

"Mama?"

"Usako?"

Blurrily, the eyes of the Moon Princess opened, closed, then opened again, her face still blank as she turned her head slowly. "Mamo-chan?" She blinked a few more times, rapidly, eyes filled with wonder. "I'm here," she whispered, then her face lit up with the usual Usagi enthusiasm, and she loudly laughed, "Mamo-chan!"

The Moon Princess had returned. 


	6. Epilogue

# Epilogue-

From a far distant place, though still very near, a young woman in a lavender and grey sailor fuku observed the festivities that were being shouted in the hospital room. This young woman was very confused, yet at the same time, very content. In one hand, she held a naginata, the silvery metal of the blade gleaming in the reflected flourescent light from the room she watched. A small smile would have been seen on her lips, if any of the bustling figures she watched had turned to look at the room's tiny mirror on the wall. There were many people there, talking and laughing, and food from a basket was being passed around by the tall cook. From where she stood, the Soldier of Dreams felt a little lonely, but she knew well enough that they were happy for the life of their future Queen. 

_So, I am forgotten again. Maybe. I feel so different, since Hotaru struck me with her Glaive. I...I have a heartbeat. I can feel it, under the bow of this strange uniform. It's warm, like a star. Sister, you say your power is death. I wonder, maybe, your power is also life, ne? Such strange things, these people do, for each other. So, then, do I return to the realm of the waking dreams? _

"...will be dangerous to perform...."

_Nani?_

"...I'm afraid...."

_What is this?_

"...told me it would be black, like a night without stars...."

_Whose thoughts are these, for me to hear them?_

From inside the mirror, Sailor Dreamweaver turned, and saw though yet another mirror the image of a young man, in a hospital gown. An IV ran into his arm, and oxygen through tubes into his nose. His eyes were closed, and the lids fluttered as he dreamed of darkness, and of the medical procedure and surgery he would soon be undergoing. 

"...can't be scared.... But it hurts...."

_He is to have something done to him...and soon. _

She turned her head from the boy to the happy senshi, still talking loudly as they filled each other in on what had happened, Usagi's waking, and Ami and Hotaru's adventure in the strange land of death. 

_They don't need me. But...he does. This place must be full of people filled with fears. Is that, then, my duty? No, I am not beholden to anyone, save myself. But if I help these people fight their fears, then that will be my duty. I will make that my karma. It is not living above the clouds, but at the same time, I can give them the lives I never had. And maybe, with this strange heartbeat in my chest, I can have a family again. The sister of Death is Sleep. And each of us to our realms. _

And it was with these thoughts that a new senshi stepped out of her mirror, and for the first time in many centuries, drew in air, and breathed it out again. Then her eyes, the color of _murasaki_, lavender, turned to the sick form of the boy in the bed, and the one named Sailor Dreamweaver entered his mind.

The Soldier of Beautiful Dreams had Awakened at last.

Well, I've gone and done it. 

I've made up my own senshi.

You will not believe, for such a quiet character, how persistent Kami is! This fic practically wrote itself.... Do you like Kami, and her story? Would you like any more stories about her? I'm working on a non-Kami fic now, but if she proves to be popular, I'll be happy to try out some more stories for her. 

As for Kami's symbol, it's called the 'World Triad.' And according to Barbara G. Walker's _'Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects'_ it is: 

"…an emblem of cosmic creativity, the threefold nature of reality or fate, and the eternally spiraling cycles of time,it was of Oriental provenance. In Japan, it was _maga-tama_ or, _mitsu tomoe_, the world soul or any individual offshoot of it. …Like the twofold yin and yang it resembles, the World Triad symbol was usually understood as a graphic image of eternity."

It does look like a yin-yang. Add one more of the swirls…like teardrops. Tomoe, too. Hotaru's family name. Odd, ne? 

Well, how'd you like it all?

Let me know! ^_^ I appriciate it.

Until next storytime!

-Queen


End file.
